Relegation battles are utterly compelling watching. Unless you are in one. The team at the bottom, deducted 5 points and all but down, followed by another 5 points adrift of that above – could be talking about the Premiership where the division is uncannily similar, but no this is London 2 South-West. Here London Cornish lost heavily to fellow strugglers KCS Old Boys, the latter simply demonstrating that a few recent wins can make a huge difference to the art of finishing as they clinically disposed of the threat from their hosts in the worst playing conditions your correspondent has witnessed in the last decade. The bonus point win hoisted the visitors above the exiles and toward safety, though both they and Teddington remain in the battle with Cornish and Old Alleynians, who face up to each other the week after next in Dulwich.

With the Rosslyn Park 7s having completely destroyed all of the main pitches at the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields, including those on which matches were not played as the constant traffic across them turned parts of them into ploughed fields, the only playable pitch was ironically enough the one way up by the A3 that used to be the home of KCS a few decades back. In freezing conditions on a saturated pitch in driving snow, KCS played the conditions so much more astutely than their hosts to win kickable penalties on both 3 and 8 minutes, the latter converted. For long periods of the next 15 minutes of the match, Cornish dominated territory with no 8 Andy McEwen, hooker Will Carew-Gibbs on his 100th league appearance, and Luke Spells all repeatedly prominent. However, the Surrey sides defence held firm, helped by too many balls being lost in contact just a few metres from the visitors try line. Twice Cornish were held up over the line, and KCS performed miracles not to concede penalties as the home side battered away, but hold firm they did and when they eventually broke the shackles they struck with a poachers try. The KCS 10 weaved his way through a series of tackles on half way and then chipped a decent kick down the left flank, where the ball was scrambled into touch by a retreating Dave Soar. At the lineout, while Cornish repelled the initial drive, a splinter group broke off to crash across the line unchallenged. As conditions deteriorated, kicking became more difficult but while the conversion was missed, an easier kick was not on the stroke of half-time, the visitors turning round 11-0 to the good.

Any semblance of note taking relied upon to produce reliable match reports went out of the window at the break, as the snow drove in even under umbrellas to freeze the ends of note taking fingers. What was apparent was that KCS began the second period as they had finished the first, and they were quickly on the board again with a converted try after Cornish again made a hash of clearing a well directed kick. Cornish rang the changes bringing on returning Skip Dave Theobald for Oli Low and Mark Osei-Tutu for Chris Anstey, and for a period the exiles dominated, Spells slotting a penalty before a series of scrums about 10 out from the KCS line were utterly dominated by Cornish who drove their opponents backwards only to be horrified to be penalized for an apparent holding offence as the KSC pack disintegrated in front of them. With lineouts something of a lottery for both sides, and long passes something of a no no, the game condensed down to who could gain territory and force the more errors. In this respect, the game was not a contest, despite manful work from Carew-Gibbs, who persistently worked his way free of the KCS defence but all too often found that his team mates were way too slow to support him. On the few occasions the ball was worked wide, fly half Jeff Power tried hard to work options with Iain Short and Spells, but though the gainline was crossed, too often the follow up saw the ball knocked on or held up as the visitors simply seemed to want the win more than their hosts. Gradually, as the ideas ran out so KCS found more space, and having weathered the storm they scored a further try from close in on 64 minutes, converted to extend the lead to 25-3. On came Tom Wapshott for a shivering Soar at full back, and though he quickly forced a knock on with a counter-attacking kick and chase, he could only watch as the visiting 9 cantered through some suspect tackling to round under the posts for the bonus point try. On the final whistle, the Cornish players could not wait to get back to the changing rooms whilst their hosts stayed behind for a photo, which said everything you wanted to know about which side relished the conditions and which would rather not be there.

KCS have now won 3 of their last 4 matches, the one defeat by a single point, their form returning at just the right time. They are still not safe but on this form they will have no problem extending their stay in the league. The Cornish players have to have an open and honest discussion amongst themselves about what is required to reverse the 8 straight losses before it is too late. They do have a 5 point buffer separating them from Alleynians, but the latter have 2 matches in hand having had matches postponed. It wont boil down to the match between the 2 in a couple of weeks time, but a win for Cornish would go a long, long way to guaranteeing survival. Over to you fellas…