It looked in the early stages as if the big visiting forwards would be decisive in conditions clearly favouring tight rugby in this match, sponsored by great Club supporters, Harlow Agricultural Merchants (HAM). Prospects, therefore looked good for Blackheath to maintain their record for the season of not having lost twice to the same side. They certainly convinced the referee that they had an edge, as he awarded two penalties at successive scrums against the Stortford front row before the ball had gone in - even though the pack subsequently managed to scrummage legally through completed scrums. Blackheath exploited this initial advantage to the full and went through several phases of forward drives, before switching the ball to the open spaces and one good long pass was enough to send flanker, Harry Bate in for a try out wide on 10 minutes, after the home defence had been sucked in. The conversion attempt went wide and Stortford bounced straight back to get onto the front foot and, eventually, courtesy of a penalty of their own at a breakdown, won a lineout well inside the Blackheath 22. A classic catch and drive was executed to see Dec Caulfield driven over for an equalising try after 20 minutes, with George Cullen's attempted conversion falling just short. The rest of the half was spent in a midfield arm-wrestle with neither side being able to establish an advantage in the appalling conditions, leaving the scores deservedly level at the break.

Stortford started the second period strongly and persisted, despite the weather to attempt to move the ball around , with some initial success. This almost cost them though, when a stray pass around halfway fell into space and Blackheath fly-hacked the ball on to within very close range of the Stortford line. The home side managed to drive their opponents back, however and, having steadily worked their way upfield, forced a penalty, which Cullen converted, despite the conditions,to take his side into a 3 point lead after 9 minutes. From the restart, Blackheath moved onto the attack and had worked their way well into the Stortford 22, when Will Roberts was penalised and arguably, rather harshly sin-binned for a high tackle as he slid in to a cover tackle. At this stage, the writing appeared to be on the wall, but Stortford held out two successive Blackheath scrums and then produced some typically dogged, backs to the wall defence, as the visitors launched drive after drive at their line. Eventually, the solid defensive wall forced a breakdown penalty, which proved to be a major turning point. Stortford slowly ground their way up field again and, having seen out the sin bin period, established a sudden clear advantage at the set scrum, managing to take two balls against the head. This and some controlled handling put them on the front foot inside the visitors' half and a spell of quick handling through a series of short passes to the flood of supporting players finally forced a breach in the Blackheath defence and Seb Brownhill was able to crash over under the posts for a try, which Cullen duly converted to take their side out to a 10 point lead with 15 minutes to go. The visitors never really looked like coming back from this deficit and their cause wasn't helped, when their tighthead prop was sin binned for taking out Rob Duff off the ball, as Stortford looked to move the ball out of defence. Time was duly seen out and the massive crowd of home supporters who had braved the foul weather to cheer on their side in this rearranged fixture were sent back to the bar with smiles on their faces. The Man of the Match award, donated by our loyal Colts' sponsors, Charterhouse Voice and Data went to Will Roberts against his old team, though it could probably have gone to any of the 11 forwards for their tremendous collective performance - or indeed to any of backs for their heroism in sticking manfully to their tasks in the bone-chilling conditions, which inevitably restricted their roles.