We did it for Nick: Sussex rugby club clock up miles - and points

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.

The 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.

50 up again from Horsham.

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.

The 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”

Squad 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