Old Walcountians’ slender hopes of making Surrey One’s promotion play-offs faded when they failed to hold on to a 13-point lead at Old Freemen’s on Saturday.

Walcountians were missing three regular players in full-back Ollie Beales, centre Callum Stone and prop Kemlo Longstaff but, apart from a recall for experienced fly-half Anthony White, they were able to call upon players who had represented them regularly during the season.

They totally dominated play in the first 30 minutes, with props Llewellyn Wooldridge and Ben Anderson anchoring a solid scrum which drove the home side off the ball in the set scrums and dominated possession in the loose.

The Freemen’s defence was tight and successfully contained Walcountians’ two most dangerous backs, Dan Crompton and Chris Walsh, but it could not stop the powerful boot of full-back Chris Mockford driving play upfield.

Mockford was on target with penalties in the second, eighth and 25 minutes, while the recalled White scored an impressive opportunist try in the 15th minute when he intercepted a weak pass and sprinted clear to touch down for Mockford to convert.

However, it was at this point that Freemen’s came to life as their pack began to turn the tables on Walcountians in the loose with a series of dynamic tackle-breaking runs which were well-supported.

Freemen’s backs also responded and began to stretch Walcountians’ defence, and the visitors did not help their cause by indiscipline which saw them concede a string of penalties and led to three players – Chris Walsh, Wally Fourie and Gavin Welsh – all being sin-binned.

Eight minutes into the second half, Freemen’s were back in the game after Walcountians’ defenders made a dreadful error in failing to field and clear a high kick, which gifted a converted try to Freemen’s.

Walcountians appeared to have done enough to hold onto victory until the closing stages of the game when scrum-half Fourie, who had previously been sin-binned, was sent off after a relatively minor infringement, reducing Walcountians to 14 players. Freemen’s took advantage of their numerical superiority to score a try in the 35th minute after they turned over possession just outside the Walcountians 22.

The game saw nearly ten minutes of time added on and Walcountians launched a last-ditch attempt to save the game.

Twice they were closely denied, the first when their forwards rolled a maul towards the Freemen’s line only to be held up just short, the second when centre Dan Crompton burst through a gap in the Freemen’s defence but was unable to get the final pass into the hands of winger Ryan McGibbon.

In the final minute, Walcountians conceded another try when an attempted breakout from the 22 using a chip and run to exploit a massive gap in the Freemen’s defence after all their backs had moved up failed to come off. The ball rebounded off the head of a surprised Freemen’s threequarter who touched down.

Next Saturday, Walcountians begin the defence of the Surrey Shield when they take on Battersea Ironsides at Clock House.