Combe Hold Their Nerve at Hinckley

Westcombe Park, having established a healthy lead, hung on long enough to record only their third win of the season, all away from Goddington Dene in Orpington, and now have a third of the season to make the mark they have been threatening for some weeks, writes Mike Attewell (in absentia).
So, this is the scenario. Six of the 10 games remaining are at home. Hang on, Combe haven’t won at Goddington Dene for over a year now. Yes, but this week’s fixture is against Newbury and they have had the occasional problem themselves this season. What’s more the following Home fixture is against Shelford, one of the five sides locked at the bottom of National League Two (S) and none of those five have shown much form of late, except Combe, of course.
Half of Combe’s remaining games are against those five clubs. Three, in the last four weeks of the season, the very last at Canterbury on the last day of the season, book your passage now, it could be an historic day!
On Saturday, Hinckley opened the scoring in the third minute with a penalty, but it did not take Combe long to come to terms with the muddy and windy weather and before the end of the first quarter had opened a 10—3 lead with two tries.
The first, came from a switch of play with Paul Trendill kicking across field and Tom Hockedy running on to it to score. The second came as a result of much of how the rest of the game panned out, a pick and drive from the forwards and Ben McKinnell getting the honours.
Hinckley were twice reduced to fourteen and Combe took advantage on each occasion, scoring two of their tries during that time. The second try was the first.
The rest of the first half saw a debilitating battle largely contained to the forwards with Combe having the majority of the control. That was to change in the second half with Hinckley introducing personnel who began to take their share of the ball.
Combe missed a, relatively easy, penalty as the half came to a close but enjoyed a 10—3 lead at the interval and, as a commentary on the conditions, emerged with a change of kit.
Further commentary is that an Air Ambulance was called for a player on an adjacent pitch and had a little difficulty lifting off between lights pylons.
The second half got underway with Combe still benefiting from Hinckley being reduced and were awarded a penalty try in the first couple of minutes. Paul Trendill converted to give Combe a comfortable 17—3 lead and the bonus point was in sight with virtually the whole of the second half to come.
Hinkley now had other ideas and with the benefit of the conditions and a couple of tactical changes not only restricted any more progress from Combe but hit back with a vengeance.
Quite soon after Combe’s try, stand-off Guy Swadling narrowed the gap with a penalty, but despite their ascendancy it took 20 minutes for Hinckley to make further inroads. This time through full-back Jonny Lowden getting the try that Swadling converted.
Hinckley were now just four points down 13—17 and there was still ten minutes to go but Combe’s nerve held long enough for a notable victory to ease their journey home from the Midlands.

Westcombe Park Team: Toby May; Tom Hockedy, Ross Tumath, John Coleman, Kieron Leeper; Paul Trendill, Charles Edwards; Ben McKinnell, Hamish Barton, Jordan Mitchell; John Wright, Dave Watkins; Reid Bradford, Charles Hopkins, Gavin Wallis (Capt.).