Old Mid-Whitgiftians ran out comfortable 31-15 winners over derby rivals Warlingham in Saturday's London Two South East encounter.

This derby had extra spice as Warlingham's captain Mark Makaskill and utility back Joe Chivers were ex Midwives players and, as the two teams had not played each other in a league match for a number of seasons, there was a large crowd.

Warlingham had the upper hand in the early encounters and were rewarded with a well struck penalty from Chivers, but Midwives quickly broke back and scrambled an unconverted try in the corner.

Warlingham fly half Alex Glover relieved the pressure with a booming kick out of defence and Chivers made two searing breaks down the right flank.

But always the final pass went astray and the visitors defended well regaining good possession.

From a Midwives attack they were awarded a penalty and, from a lineout close to the Warlingham tryline, they worked a second try in the corner.

The difficult conversion hit the cross bar but Midwives now had the upper hand.

Warlingham prop James Delderfield went off injured, but was replaced by the omnipresent Alex Nunn, who, supported by flanker Dan Street and lock, Ben Wiseman, put in some hard tackles to stunt the waves of attack.

Warlingham eventually pleased their supporters with a clever move across field ending with Chivers slicing through the Midwives defence giving a well timed, try-crossing pass to winger Joel Cheaveney.

A penalty scored by Midwives on the stroke of halftime added to Warlingham's mountain to climb.

The home side took the game by the scruff of the neck after the break and, after a close penalty miss scrum half Stephen Murtagh made 30 metres with a determined break and gave the following up flanker Richard Melton a wide space to carry on the move.

Melton jinxed, sidestepped and scored under the posts. Chivers added the conversion to put Warlingham within a point of the leaders.

The game was clearly there for the taking but Warlingham took some wrong decisions and spilled the ball too often.

Midwives remained calm and were quicker to the breakdown to secure possession.

They spurned a penalty attempt, flipped the ball out wide and scored their unconverted third try.

Their tails were up and a long penalty sealed the result.

With Warlingham throwing everything but the kitchen sink into attack, Midwives broke free from defence to score their final, bonus point-securing try under the posts.

The successful conversion brought the final whistle with jubilation from Midwives and dejection from their hosts.

Warlingham's head coach, Bill Maynard said after the game: "The result flatters Midwives but they deserved the points.

"We have to secure more ball and then retain possession.

"Had we kept possession just a bit longer the result could have been very different."

Next Saturday Warlingham travel to near rivals Purley John Fisher in a nail biting bottom-of-the table tussle at Parsons Pytle.