Friday night`s downpour played a big part in what became a tense struggle for both sides against the conditions. The pitch had standing water on it for the whole 80 minutes and provided a difficult surface for any attractive rugby whatsoever. However the home side dearly wanted to reverse the result from earlier in the season and although they lost their way during the middle period of the game, their tactics in the first and the last 20 minutes were sufficient to win the day - and to score the all -important bonus point in so doing.

In point of fact, the Blue & Golds were 19 points ahead before some spectators had arrived. Ben Barter scored within 2 minutes of kick-off and converted his own try. Then good work by Nathan Ring up the left flank led to a surge in the centre and Steve Clark was on hand to finish off. Although the conversion missed narrowly, it was only a minute later than scrum half Matt Pysden spotted a gap and darted through to hand Barter his second converted try of the afternoon. At 19-0, it looked ominous for the visitors.

To their credit however, Uckfield maintained a robust challenge at every phase of play and were rewarded with a winger`s try from a 5 metre scrummage. Their cause was helped on the half hour when influential No.9 Pysden had to leave the field injured. The rearranged side struggled to cope with wave after wave of Uckfield attacks and from one such, the visiting inside centre skipped over weak tackling and touched down. Only a last ditch tackle by Sid Hiremutt prevented a further score; it is safe to assume that 19-17 would have led to a very tense last quarter.

However with the clock ticking on, the Blue & Golds forced mistakes from Uckfield leading to two of the visitors being show a yellow card. Shorn of two players, further tries seemed inevitable. First the referee awarded a penalty try followed by the one moment of excitement in a gruelling period when full back Nick King took the ball at speed and burst through several tackles to hurtle over in the corner. Barter`s magnificent conversion was a joy to behold.

In the last few minutes, front row forward Chilvers crashed over the try line but was unable to ground the ball. The result puts Eastbourne up into 7th position in the league with the re-arranged match at Burgess Hill to follow next week.

Eastbourne:- Goldsmith Sinclair Chilvers Mottram Farley Ring Redman Grey Pysden Barter Smith Cheater Clark Hiremutt King Garcia Cousins Hayllar

Man of the match: full back Nick King