Lewes return to winning ways against Burgess Hill

In essence, the pattern of the game was the power of the visitor's forwards against the pace and flair of the home back-line in which Man-of-the-Match Harry Hanley was the star of the show with five tries.

It took only three minutes for Lewes to open their account when they capitalised upon a loose ball near their own line to send outside-centre Hanley away to score at the other end, outside-half Billy Shiell slotting over the conversion to open the scoring at 7-0. Hanley then added his second shortly after, Shiell again adding the extras.

In between, the Burgess Hill pack worked a front-of-line-out move to score in the corner for an unconverted try. Another forward's try after 10 minutes saw matters level at 14-14.

But the home side then opened up a gap with further, but unconverted, tries from Hanley and left-winger Lewis Austin, with Burgess Hill responding with another unconverted try of their own to make the half-time score-line 24-19.

It was a testament to the commitment of the Lewes eight in the loose that the otherwise impressive power of the visitor's pack was largely nullified after the break and they provided enough ball for their backline to put the game beyond doubt.

A hat-trick from the flying Hanley - one following a storming 50-metre break from No. 8 Finn Spalding - and another try from right-wing Peter Ford, with three more conversions from Shiell, enabled Lewes to notch up the half-century.

This assault left Burgess Hill gasping in the heat, but to their credit they had the last word with a penalty and forward surge for a seven-pointer try in front of the posts to end this entertaining match at 50-29.

No doubt this encouraging win will lift Lewes's spirits for their challenging game on Saturday away to currently unbeaten Crawley, k.o. 3.00pm.

Lewes: Hill, Warren, Avis, Cowling, Sullivan, Vigar, Moule (Capt.), Spalding, Rourke, Shiell, Austin, Feltham, Hanley, Ford, Errigo. (Reps. all used: Williams, Rankin, Billin).