1871 scrape into Floodlit Cup Final

Ealing 1871 faced familiar foes in the semi-final of the North West Middlesex Floodlit Cup in a fourth encounter of the season with neighbours Actonians. It produced a fourth victory, but the result was in doubt until the final whistle, with Actonians notching four tries to the three by Ealing, who were grateful for the accurate boot of Callum Nolan-Hutchinson to clinch a place in the final in May.

A strong breeze made for difficult conditions, with the visitors having the benefit of the elements in the first period. Actonians started the stronger and were rewarded with an unconverted try after just 3 minutes, after working an overlap. They continued to show their strengths, particularly among the forwards with some powerful direct running, and it was easy to see why they are current favourites to join Ealing in promotion to Herts Middlesex League 2. Ealing had to call on their defensive skills until centre Manuel Viviani eventually broke from deep, supported by centre partner Stan Duhamel, to finally move play upfield. After a couple of Ealing penalties kicked to touch failed to yield a score from ensuing lineouts, a change of tactics with a quickly taken short penalty paid dividends with a try by Duhamel on 26 minutes. Ten minutes later a kick out of defence by fly half Nolan-Hutchinson was nearly collected by one of his team-mates, but an Actonians player instead gathered the ball at pace and offloaded for a fine try, again unconverted. With the advantage of the wind to come, Ealing finished the half with a second try from a quickly taken penalty, scored by prop Andrew Barton.

Urged by the coaches not to let up in the second half, Ealing nevertheless found if difficult to assert any significant superiority, despite long periods of territorial dominance. Two penalties by Nolan-Hutchinson pushed the lead to 20-10, but immediately after a yellow card for prop Tim Hichcock for back-chat Actonians hit back with a short-range try, with the conversion attempt crucially again missed. However, this was soon cancelled out when a kick out of defence by Actonians was collected and the ball was swung along the back line for right wing Kavan Fitzpatrick to finish in the corner with 62 minutes on the clock. The visitors enjoyed a period of dominance, yielding a fourth try after they had made a sustained assault on the Ealing, with 3 minutes of normal time remaining. With a couple of brief alarms 1871 managed to play out the remaining time plus 7 minutes of time added on to book their final place.