Barnet hold their heads high agaainst top of the table opposition.

Harpenden's 1stXV stand two league levels above BE. To make matters worse, a horde of unavailable players meant that BE 2s were struggling to field a side, even when the 3s game was cancelled. The appalling numbers reflect badly on the senior players, throughout the Club, but their blushes were spared by a remarkable performance from the 16 players that did turn out: special mention here should go to Matt "Mad Dog" Conisbee, who received a call-up a couple of hours before the game, and, in particular, to Iain Sutherland who only woke up at 12.45 but still put in a great performance, coming off the bench to help with a second half shut-out.

Even though the build-up to the game was far from ideal (BE only had 13 men warming up), it was clear that everyone was committed to putting in a strong performance and making things as difficult as possible for the opposition. From the off, the visitors were put under huge pressure from a side that was confident on the ball and recycled quickly. Despite being camped on the BE 5 metre line for about 5 minutes, they were unable to cross, thanks to strong defence. This set the tone for most of the first half with Harpenden pressure coming up against ferocious defence, combined with the odd barnstorming run - here, ARNIE HIXSON and ROSS WILKINSON were the highlights - and a hugely effective kick chase by the 2nds putting the opposition under pressure and often resulting in large territorial gains. Ultimately, Harpenden's possession dominance started to tell and BE infringements, at the breakdown, became more common. The home fly-half had a great boot on him and pinned BE on their line. Twice Harpenden were able to score identikit tries from 5 metre line-outs, leading to a rolling maul over the line. Their third try came from an uncharacteristic fault in the fringe defence allowing their No 9 to slip over, resulting in a 19-0 half time lead.

Despite the score, there had been enough shown in the first half to show that BE were still in the game and that a step-up in intensity, as well as more canny defending of their line-outs, could make things interesting. This was duly delivered in a phenomenal second half where Harpenden were thwarted along their line-out plan, thanks to sterling work from PHANOS LOUCA and IAIN SUTHERLAND and more pressure in the rucks leaving the hosts ragged and giving away more penalties. After one turnover, deep in BE territory from PHANOS LOUCA and JAMES STUBBS, quick ball allowed ROSS WILKINSON to be put into a half-gap which he made the most of to surge past the cover defence from the half-way line to put BE on the scoreboard. This gave more confidence to BE and more indiscipline by the hosts - around 10 minutes later, a penalty close to the away line saw the ball spread along the backs where ROD MACLENNAN managed to break a couple of tackles and take another couple of reluctant defenders with him on a trip to the try line. BE continued to apply pressure but time was against them and the final whistle blew with BE, again, deep in the home half.

In such a magnificent team effort, albeit for an ultimately losing cause, it is difficult to point out individuals; those already mentioned are all worthy of mention in this report, as are RALPH LANE for his all-round play from hooker and PATRICK McMAHON who has the uncanny ability to always be closest to the ball whenever it goes loose. Man of the MATCH was AL MACFARLANE, who was tireless in all his work, especially at the breakdown and winding up the opposition No 10.

After the game, the players were treated to the unsual combination of penne bolognese with chips: the chips were crispy with a touch of salt and the pasta was also fantastically seasoned with a generous amount of meat. The one draw-back, on this interesting carb-heavy combo, was that the pasta itself was a touch over-cooked - probably because the chef was so engrossed in what was unfolding on the pitch that he forgot to take the pasta off the boil.

EM