Old Walcountians moved up to third in Surrey League 1 after a dour win over Old Freemen’s at Clock House last Saturday.

Old Walcountians had to reshuffle their backline as both regular full-back Ollie Beales and scrum-half Wally Fourie were unavailable.

Teenager Fred South was brought in at full-back, while a positional shuffle which saw the versatile Callum Stone take over the scrum-half berth gave winger Steve Jameson his debut.

Walcountians looked out of sorts for much of the opening 20 minutes as they repeatedly fumbled possession and handed it over to an average Old Freemen’s XV.

Five minutes into the game, the visitors could not believe their luck when Walcountians’ defenders were pulled out of position and their number eight was able to slip a pass inside to his unmarked left-winger who had a free run to the line to touch down for an unconverted try.

The 18th minute saw Walcountians finally make amends when the forwards recycled ball from a ruck in the Freemen’s 22, from which Callum Stone put number eight Gavin Welsh away to find fly-half Chris Mockford in support, from which he twisted his way out of a tackle to touch down and convert his own try.

Seven minutes later, Walcountians extended their lead when skipper Alex Sutherland broke from the back of a ruck to feed energetic flanker Scott Cook who crashed over for a try.

The remainder of the match was largely forgettable. Walcountians maintained an advantage over the visitors but, through giving away too many penalties, threw away opportunities to extend their lead.

Flankers Scott Cook and Jack South foraged tirelessly and number eight Gavin Welsh was always a threat on the break, while full-back Fred South who had a sound game and centre Sam Naylor was most prominent of Walcountians’ defenders by putting in some punishing tackles, but few other Walcountians players looked likely to break the deadlock.

However, they successfully kept Freemen’s at bay despite losing firstly Scott Cook and subsequently lock Russ Yeo to the sin-bin and, after the late introduction of massive prop Ben Anderson, mounted a late rally which put the visitors’ line under pressure.

Next Saturday, Walcountians take on bottom side Farnham who belied their lowly status by holding second-placed Old Whitgiftians to a draw. Kick-off at Clock House is at 2:15pm.