In our weekly round-up of the local rugby action, there are wins for Colchester, Woodbridge, Braintree and Chelmsford....
London One North
COLCHESTER absolutely overwhelmed visiting Luton in a wet and windy game, winning 112-0 to stay second in the league.
The Essex side were 50-0 at the break, having run in eight tries, and added another 62 points in the second stanza, with ten more tries.
11 of the scores were converted too, David Higgins adding ten extras and sub Jack White converting his own score at the end of the game.
Colchester’s Ben Murphy scored six of the tries, which is thought to be a club record. They travel to Eton Manor next.
Elsewhere, SUDBURY showed fighting spirit in a 52-7 home defeat to table-toppers Rochford Hundred.
They were in contention at the break, 19-7 down, but five second half tries saw Rochford run away with it. As with the rest of London league rugby sides, Sudbury now have a week off – much needed after playing the top four sides in the league.
And DISS completed a clean sweep of defeats for our local sides in London One, falling 34-17 at home to Old Haberdashers.
Chris Beaird and Cutu Serruys scored the tries for Diss, with Beaird also adding a penalty.
London Two North East
SOUTHWOLD were beaten 17-10 by Romford & Gidea Park on a wet and miserable day on the common.
Wold led 7-0 at the break through a Jonny Mayall try, converted by Luke Wade, but were pegged back to 10-10, Wade adding a penalty.
Unfortunately, a late try then proved decisive for the visitors.
Meanwhile, STOWMARKET were beaten handily be league-leaders Woodford at home, 33-7.
The Suffolk side actually took the lead with a fine try from Dotun Ogunkeyede, converted by Adam Clayson. But that was as good as it got for the home team, with Woodford scoring 33 unanswered points.
London Three Eastern Counties
WOODBRIDGE enjoyed their first win of the season, outlasting Crusaders 7-6, in a low-scoring tussle in Suffolk.
Crusaders took an early lead through a Rob Loone penalty, but the Warriors fought back to seize the advantage as Jeff Buchanan touched down.
Loone brought the Crusaders to within a point, but staunch Woodbridge defence stopped them getting any closer and JP Hart came closest to scoring again, having what looked a certain try slapped out of his hands.
London Three Essex
BRAINTREE won another low-scoring game, besting East London 7-5 at home.
The Black and Ambers moved back into third place after grabbing the points from a game which was played against a backdrop of strong winds and driving rain.
It didn’t take long for them to put points on the board and they made the breakthrough after 11 minutes.
A sublime side-step by stand-off Dan Olley saw him squeeze through a gap in the opposition defence before popping the ball to winger Joe Meade.
Meade gathered the pass at speed using a superb angle of attack before scoring under the posts to enable Oakley to kick the conversion and establish a 7-0 lead.
That would prove to be enough to win, as London missed a conversion after finally scoring a try just four minutes from time.
Finally, CHELMSFORD stayed unbeaten, claiming their fifth league of the season, with a fine 42-5 home triumph over Old Cooperians.
Paul Redford and Ed Wild tries gave them a 14-5 lead at the break, before Jordan Ayling’s excellet kicking game helped them dominate the second half in poor conditions.
David Hyett, Tom Acorn, Tom Taylor and Warren Woodward added further scores.
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