After heavy overnight rain, which persisted for much of the match, conditions were not conducive to expansive rugby, but Stortford managed to build from a pragmatic, but dominant first half to score 6 tries, including some excellent running rugby.

The first score came after 11 minutes of dominance by Stortford's forwards and went, appropriately enough, to No 6, Steve Ball, who broke from the back of a retreating maul from a 5 metre lineout to barge his way over the line for a great individual try. Goalkicking was extremely difficult on a soaking-wet pitch and Tom Coleman's attempt from out wide was unsuccessful, as it was 9 minutes later, after scrumhalf, Sam Whiffen, returning after a long absence through injury, celebrated with an early try, following a great shortside break by Mark McCraith off the back of a tremendous scrum on the Clifton 22. Stortford's front five were playing extremely well at the set pieces, as well as in the loose and a secondary drive at a Clifton scrum in front of their posts saw the ball taken against the head, allowing McCraith once more to break powerfully to find Marcus Cattell in close support to plunge over under the posts. This gave Mike Gallagher an easy conversion kick, which took the halftime score to 17-0.

Clifton gave themselves a lift early in the second half when, building on an excellent long kick out of defence, they forced their way into the Stortford 22 - a rare event in itself - and further pressure produced a penalty for offside in front of the posts, which flyhalf, Luke Blizzard easily converted. This proved to have been only a shortlived fightback, however, as the home side quickly reasserted their dominance. After 14 minutes of the half this produced the bonus point winning, fourth try when another powerful scrum produced a pushover try for Mark McCraith, after posiion had been created by some great handling by Cattell,, Gallagher and Nick Hankin. Once again, the conversion proved too difficult, as it did three minutes later, when Hankin rounded off some excellent interplay between Cattell and Sam Winter to touch down out wide. It took another 15 minutes for the next try to come, with McCraith doubling his tally off the back of a driving maul and this time, George Cullen, on at fullback, after winger, Harry Marner had gone off, kicked a tremendous conversion to take the score to 34-3. Undaunted, Clifton continued to fight and they took full advantage of a mistake by the home side, as they tried once too often to run out of defence and a smart chip kick and chase by fullback, Will Pomphrey produced a consolation try out wide to take the final score to 34-8.

This was a great win, built on the back of a tremendous performance by the forwards, with Rory Young anchoring the powerful tight scrummaging and the Aldam twins, partnered for the first time in the second row absolutely in their element, driving and tackling to great effect and providing a strong platform for the backrow to control much of the game. This said, on a freezing cold and soaking wet day, tremendous credit has to go to the threequarters, who produced some remarkable handling to give rein to some typically strong running and cap off a fantastic allround performance, providing ample reward for the large crowd that had braved the elements. On this basis, let's hope for some shocking weather next week at Old Elthamians!