Match Report written by David Vaughan

It was the perfect afternoon for Wold as they overpowered their closest neighbours Beccles and moved up to fifth spot in London North East Three with their third win in a row and the icing on the cake was in doing so they also climbed ahead of their other local rivals Lowestoft and Yarmouth who had lost away to Wanstead.
For the first time in many many years they now sit above both their local rivals in the league and of that they should be very proud and realise just what they achieved on Saturday
Southwold may only have arrived in this league this season but have already proved they intend to stay and on Saturday's performance no-one could argue the point.
As in some other games this season it seems that sometimes they struggle to believe how good they can be and in the first half of the match, with the wind behind them they simply camped in the Beccles half for the first 35 minutes, but through a mixture of nerves and valiant defending by Beccles, they wasted chance after chance to put points on the board. It was then that Richie Thickett burst through the centre of the Beccles defence and it seemed Wold were about to at last score, but after a great 30 metre break he was caught right on the line and Beccles again managed to turnover the ball and clear to touch.
Wold won the ball cleanly in the lineout only 5 metres out but chose to feed the ball out to the backs instead of gathering and driving for the line and yet again the Beccles defence won the day and the score remained 0 - 0 at half time despite total territorial advantage created by a dominant forward display throughout the half with the front row of Smith, Aldous and Brett dominating the scrums, albeit the lineouts had been affected badly by the strong wind and Beccles had indeed stolen Wold ball on three or four occasions
The second half was however a different matter and just as they done against Epping and Upper Clapton Wold turned on the style against the wind scoring their first try after only three minutes. They had camped in the Beccles twenty two from the restart and simply kept the ball in hand with a series of great drives making two or three metres at a time until the ball was spun quickly out wide left and James Barton at full back this time making the extra man was simply too quick for the Beccles defence and he sprinted home out wide for a great team try
Ten minutes later Wold again made great metres with a series of short powerful drives from the half way line right up to the Beccles line keeping the ball in hand but for a while it seemed the Beccles defence wouldn't crack.
Lee Wagner had other ideas though and eventually crashed over for Wold's second this time wide on the right. As with the first try the wind made the conversion impossible but Wold's lead had increased to a deserved ten points.
Wold were penalised on 53 minutes for holding on the ball in the ruck and the lead was reduced to seven points as the penalty kick sailed between the posts
The game ebbed and flowed but Beccles came more into the game both in possession and territory but it was Wold who scored next with ten minutes to go
Johnny Clark won great lineout ball 15 metres out and then came a great Wold drive and is was the evergreen Adam Smith at prop who capped off a great afternoon for the Wold front row union, and crashed over to score an unstoppable try and increase Wolds lead to 15-3 with barely ten minutes to go
It was now or never for Beccles and they piled on the pressure and now it was Wold defending hard and they continued to do that well until the 80th minute
when Beccles were awarded a penalty for the Wold back line being offside in front of the posts. The penalty was taken quickly and Beccles caught Wold napping to score a final try wide on the left to leave the final score at 15 - 8 in Wold's favour as the conversion was narrowly missed
It was a pulsating second half and a deserved win
Backs coaches Kevin Kayley and Skip Webb made an inspired change at half time with Rob Owles at nine and Russell Hume at ten changing places and Hume's superior passing game suited the conditions and seemed on the day to pull the whole team together
James Barton was again outstanding at full back and made some great tackles and runs capped off with his try
A deserved win for Wold and as usual Sweet Caroline rang out loudly after the game in the Wold changing room " Good times never seemed so good "
A great day for the team, the Club members and all the local supporters who turned up to cheer the Black and Gold's to victory

Joint MOM Russell Hume and James Barton

Merry Christmas to all !!

Arn The Wold !!!