After a weekend off, Saturday the 17th of February saw Old Caterhamians RFC travel a mile or so up the road for their Counties 2 Surrey fixture against Purley John Fisher RFC. Cats suffered a frustrating 13-18 home defeat to their local rivals back in November so another close encounter was on the cards.

Two weeks ago Cats got back to winning ways in a tough, close fought match with Old Whitgiftian RFC and would need all that resilience in this fixture.

At the start of the match a poor kick off by Fisher resulted in a Cats scrum, which lead to a typical Oscar Nye pick and go. He successfully carried and off-loaded to scrum half Zach Uddoh who in turn passed to Theo Kenyon who feed James Hanson to score. Tom Clayton converted to put Cats up 0-7.

Fisher reduced the arrears with a successful penalty to make it 3-7.

Further on into the match Tom Clayton put away two penalties to give Cats a 3-13 lead, which stood at half time.

Cats second try began with a penalty outside the Fisher 5 metre line. A couple of crash ball phases from the forwards lead to a familiar Zach Uddoh snipe under the posts. The try was converted and Cats were in control at 3-20.

Fisher didn’t concede at this point and put Cats hope of victory under pressure with two late unconverted tries to make it 13-20 at the final whistle.

Full Time Score: Purley John Fisher 13-20 Old Caterhamians
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Overall it was an important victory for Cats who played well in the first half but let things slip a touch in the second, allowing Fisher back in the game towards the end.

Following that win, Cats moved up one place in the Counties 2 Surrey League table and are now in third spot on 62 points. Chipstead also on 62 points lost to Old Wimbledonians at the weekend so drop to fourth based on their points difference.

Cats welcome Old Wimbledonians to Park Avenue on Saturday 24th February for the re arranged fixture that was postponed a few weeks back because of the weather.

It promises to be another tough outing for the lads.