We did it for Nick: Sussex rugby club clock up miles - and points
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Southport Vets 31 Nick Giles RFC 27;
Hastings & Bexhill Vets 22 St Leonards CP XV 15
The first leg of the 600 mile round trip was for a Nick Giles XV to play a strong Southport RFC line-up.
The charity side started strongly with Ports skipper Murray Warman scoring two quick tries, converting one.
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Hide AdThe game then swang back and forth, with Southport scoring a number of tries. This was interspersed with tries from Joe Whitehill-James who ran in from 95 metres, and Warman fed ex-Ports winger Jac Evans.
The game swung in the hosts’ favour before Whitehill-James added a second.
An unlikely victory was in sight before Southport took it at the end.
The travelling Ports contingent then made the 300 mile journey to Hastings to face Hastings & Bexhill.
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Hide AdThe game was as expected exceptionally physical with both sides showing no quarter but Ross Kearney tackled throughout.
Ports took the lead through a Luke Barningham penalty before Hastings added a try. Good Ports pressure saw Greg Montier crash over with tacklers hanging off him. Mike Hutchins converted. I
In the second half Hastings found their groove and scored a number of tries before Ports showed a lot of steel in the last quarter with the scrummage doing particularly well, swift ball found Luke Barningham who dived over to end the game. George Upton was named E-Heat Man of the match for the Northern leg, with the ultra-physical Kearney winning the nod for the southern leg.
Event organiser and Ports stalwart Gavin Thomas said: “The boys put themselves through a lot this weekend, but we wanted to honour Nick and having already raised £3,000 we’ve done that”
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Hide AdSquad v Southport: Tritton, Wan, Wright, Prosser, Thomas, Storey, Calvert, Upton, Ingram, Dedman, C Barningham, Hall, Owen, Larner, O’Rourke, Hutchins, Loving-Price, Kearney, Warman, Evans, L Barningham, Whitehill-James, Evans, McGinty. Squad v Hastings & Bexhill: Tritton, Wright, Wan, Dedman, Thomas, Storey, Perry, C Barningham, Glynn, Scriven, Ingram, Upton, Whittington, McClean, Mayer, Eastwood, Hall, Smart, Hill, Hutchins, Kearney, Loving-Price, Warman, Whitehill-James, L Barningham. Bigg, Montier