Old Whitgiftians ran out 23-0 winners in a crucial Surrey One fixture at Cranleigh on Saturday, writes Terry Brown.

Although Cranleigh are bottom of the table, the fact league leaders Kingston only beat them 7-0 a fortnight ago suggested this would not be an easy match.

Although missing the strength of Mick Grant in the back row, the Old Boys started comfortably, but without posing a real threat to the Cranleigh goal line .

After 10 minutes Les Todd opened the scoring for the Croydon side with a simple penalty but there followed a sustained period of Cranleigh pressure with Whitgift looking a little vulnerable in the centre .

Scrum half Carl Adkin relieved the situation with a fine solo try from 35 yards after sprinting away with the ball from the base of the scrum . Todd added the extra points .

The home side lost the chance to put some points on the board when they missed a simple penalty at the end of the first half. Whitgift 10 points to the good at half time.

There was an undistinguished start to the second half with a lot of scrappy play .

With the game lacking any flow some niggling began to start between the two sets of forwards . Indeed the niggling was to become more bad tempered as the second half progressed .

Fifteen minutes into the half Todd converted a penalty after some unnecessary words to the referee from a Cranleigh player . There was then a period of strong pressure from the home side and on occasions Whitgift were lucky to keep their opponents from scoring. The highlight of some gritty defence was a magnificent tackle by Todd when a Cranleigh player was about to put the ball down for a try.

With the visitors rarely able to escape from their own half it was a relief when Todd put over another penalty. Five minutes from the end the same player's speed gave the Old Boys another try after a fine flowing move . The full back converted his own try to allow Whitgift to run out the winners by 23-0 .

Adkin and Todd were the men of the match . Maybe the score flattered the Croydon team but they deserved their win which keeps them in third place in the league and allows the dream of promotion to continue.

Unfortunately, the match ended with a Cranleigh player being sent off after the final whistle and some home supporters being warned about their behaviour.