A fine all round performance enabled Dartfordians to easily beat lowly Crawley at Bourne Road last Saturday.

There were some outstanding contributions, particularly from scrum-half Howard Evans, fly-half Bradley Jones and prop Neil Hubble and Darts were in control in the first minute when young winger Tom Williams hacked on and raced 30 metres to beat ther Crawley defence to the try-line.

Then, taking a quick penalty, Evans rounded two defenders before his pass saw flanker Paul Gills score by the posts to give Jones the easiest of conversions.

After a Jones penalty, Evans popped again from a tapped penalty move to score himself, and Jones added a further two points.

Skipper Matt Smith, returning after a lengthy injury, was back to his best, combining well with his fellow centre Dave Stening and winger Matt Hellyer.

With a chip over the defence he was illegally held back just short of the line by a Crawley player and the referee awarded a penalty try, which Jones converted.

Crawley eventually breached the Darts defence for a consolaton try, but immediately the Darts restored the difference when Stening latched on to an inch-perfect Jones pass to clinch a 34-5 win.

This Sunday, Darts are away to New Ash Green in the first round of the Shepherd Neame Kent Cup, kick off 2pm.

Bexley extended their unbeaten home league record to more than 12 months with a hard-earned 8-0 victory over HSBC.

It was important for the home side to bounce back after their disappointing defeat to Darenth Valley the previous week, and they were helped by the welcome return from injury of second row Chris Burgess and centres, Darran Brand and Jim Peerless.

Bexley took the lead towards the end of the half when a break from Brand was followed up by Peerless, and from a quick ruck Steve Fry crashed over, but Andy Moon narrowly missed converting.

Moon added a penalty soon after the restart, but Bexley failed to press home their advantage. Bexley's next league game is away to Old Elthamians on Saturday week.

Sidcup, after two successive wins, suffered a disappointing 15-8 reverse at Brighton on Saturday.

Perhaps the previous Thursday's training session had something to do with the defeat in that lock Matt Boyle and winger Damien Izzard sustained injuries to ear and wrist respectively which are likely to keep them out for several weeks.

And to make matters worse, Richard Roddis became another early casualty being forced to retire in the first-half with a groin injury.

Grant Vowls' first-half penalty restricted Brighton to a 5-3 half-time lead,

Lock Luke Drury at last breached the home line, when he crashed over from an astute Richard Leamon pass after a sustained spell of pressure when Sidcup camped in the Brighton 22, but they were unable to force another score.

This Sunday, Sidcup commence their Kent Cup campaign with a visit from Brockleians at 2pm.

November 20, 2001 12:05