Old Walcountians 12 Teddington 34

Missing Gavin Welsh, Wally Fourie and Chris Walsh, who were playing for Surrey, Walcountians gave the visitors a searching examination in the opening 20 minutes.

However, the hosts spilled too many passes and failed to make the most of their possession, so it was Teddington who took the lead midway through the first half when their fly-half ran past a stretched Walcountians defence.

Teddington scored again in the 27th minute when their outside-centre swerved past the Old Boys’ defence and, following an unsuccessful penalty attempt from Walcountians’ full-back Ollie Beales, scored a third try just before half-time to put them 17 points clear.

Walcountians opened the second half with a fierce rally in which prop Ben Anderson was unlucky not to score a try after being held up on the Teddington line. But they slipped even further behind as Teddington’s speedy backs crossed their line in the 11th and 13th minutes for two more tries.

Walcountians refused to give up and were rewarded for their persistence in the 17th minute when No 8 Steve Bayles took the ball from a ruck and fought his way past three Teddington defenders for a try which fly-half Chris Mockford converted.

Teddington scored a slightly fortuitous try in the 27th minute when they got the rub of the green when the ball bounced in their direction, but Walcountians continued to battle to make up the arrears and were rewarded in the 35th minute when Chris Mockford looped round his threequarters to take a return pass and hold off an attempted tackle to score a try.

Walcountians finished their first season back in Surrey 1 in fifth place. They now break for the summer and will be returning to pre-season training in July.

Walcountians’ tenure of the Surrey Shield was ended with a 17-5 defeat at Cranleigh last week.

A try from Callum Stone produced the one bright spot for Walcountians.

Cranleigh will play Chipstead in the final.