West Kent’s two National League 2 East sides Tonbridge Juddians and Sevenoaks drew their battle lines on Saturday afternoon in crisp weather at The Slade to fight out a thrilling 29-29 draw.
Tonbridge, who sit in sixth place in the league, and 11 points ahead of their local rivals, opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Joe Parkes sped over the line on the right with Sam Evans adding the extra points to give them a 7-0 lead.
Oaks then set to work over the following 20 minutes with some great fluid movements ending with a penalty try, shortly before Drew Forrester went over and Ben Adams converted to lead 7-14 after 30 minutes. TJs then rallied for the last few minutes of the half and Will Holling drove over after a well worked lineout which then saw Evans convert once again. 14-14 at the half.
Sevenoaks were a little sleepy in their return to the field and TJs took full advantage with Holling getting his second try of the game, however the lead didn’t last long as Angelo Valentine went over, and Adams converted for a 19-21 lead with half an hour to go.
Evans then converted a penalty for TJs, and Oaks were down to 14 men, could the home team now press their advantage? 20 minutes passed without a point as both teams pressed hard, but it was to be that man Adams again, this time with his own penalty conversion in the 76th minute.
However, the match was far from over and just a minute later TJs were awarded a penalty try to take a late 29-24 lead over their valiant visitors. Into the 80th minute and with Oaks receiving yet another yellow card it was down to winger Barney Stone to write the penultimate chapter of this compelling story.
There was a hush as Adams had a conversion to win the match, but the angle and distance defeated him, and the final whistle blew to applause from both sets of supporters. Final score 29 -29, with both teams earning a two week break before their next set of fixtures on October 28th.
