Westcombe Park put a string of narrow defeats behind them to register a first win on their return to National League Rugby. On top of that the Goddington Dene side secured a try bonus point and stopped the Raiders from returning to the South coast with anything to show for their efforts.

Combe opened the scoring with a penalty from man of the match Toby Wallace when Raiders were pinged at the scrum. The visitors came back hard and, with the Westcombe Park defence falling off tackles, Raiders scored via centre Jack Forrest from good line out ball. Lewis Ellis slotted the conversion. 3-7 to the Raiders.

On 12 minutes Wallace underlined his running qualities with a mazy run from just outside his own 22m line. He glided through five or six defenders to score under the posts. Wallace then converted his own try. Combe went further ahead when Josh Smith bundled over the line after several phases in the visitors 22. The successful conversion made it 17-7 to Westcombe Park.
Combe’s pack had more than edged the battle of the set piece and had the harder running forwards particularly Smith and captain Nick Cook. With Ben Fryatt controlling things at the base of the scrum, the Combe supporters had cause for hope of a win.

In the second half Combe scored early on through lock Raf Dutta after a period of sustained territorial pressure. The effervescent Wallace then drop kicked the conversion when the ball tumbled off the tee. Try bonus point was secured when Wallace bettered his earlier solo effort, bouncing off tackles to score under the posts. The conversion put Combe 31-7 ahead with 10 minutes to play.

Consolation tries from Tom Bowen and Finlay Glass both converted by Ellis put a respectable finish to the score line for the visitors, but it was the Combe supporters who celebrated at the final whistle.
Next week Combe travel round the M25 to renew our acquaintance with Dorking who currently top the league with Combe moving up to ninth.