Sutton Suffer in the Heat.

Sutton 3s came unstuck on a warm afternoon against Luctonians 3s. Due to a combination of player unavailability and prolonged discussion over league rulings, Sutton made an uncertain start and quickly found themselves 5 points down to an unconverted try. Sutton responded well, however, through the probing and ball running of Dan Wells, Pete Dale, Chris Duckworth and Christian Brindley but it all came to nought as Luctonians escaped their manacles to scamper away for their second try under the posts although somehow the conversion was missed. 10 -0 to the visitors from Herefordshire. Back came Sutton and finally they got on the score sheet as Chris Duckworth surged through a gap to touch down. Unfortunately the conversion was missed. Despite pressure from the men in green and some rumbustious running from Dom Morphett! the teams settled for half time at 10-5 to Luctonians.
After an arid half time Sutton commenced the half as they had finished the first with plenty of territory and possession but as in the first half Luctonians exploited gaps in the Sutton rearguard and breached it to touch down but again were unsuccessful with their conversion attempt. Still, the home team gathered themselves and finally scored through a fine individual try from Christian Brindley who chipped ahead from the 22 gathered his own kick and scored by the posts.Three points behind and surely Sutton would forge ahead and collect the honours and the points? However it was not to be as the home team tired and they conceded a clutch of tries as the visitors finished with 51 points to Sutton’s 26. Sutton did score 20 more tries through a typically opportunistic try from Stuart McGarragle and a pacy one from Matt Mannion who showed he still has the pace to run in tries at this level.
Skipper Steve Marshall marshalled his troops well as ever. As for the rest of the season, a long season lies ahead if player availability does not improve and attendance at Wednesday evening training. There was little grumbling apart from the grumpy author of this report and Mark McEvoy who combined solid strong tackling with temporary spells of red mist descending!!