James Gwinnett is nearing a return after a long-term injury

An England call-up means that Tunbridge Wells’ Guy Lavery will miss the local derby with Heathfield & Waldron at St Marks this Saturday.

Lavery was due to play for the Wells in their crucial game with their neighbours and London 2 South East relegation rivals last week, before joining up with the England Deaf Rugby squad for the next three weeks. Instead the resulting postponement means his place will be taken by Mike Doherty.

Tunbridge Wells are preparing for the fixture as usual, even if chairman Roger Clarke admits he does not expect the game to go ahead.

“If you look at the forecast it’s doubtful, it isn‘t expected to get above one degree all week,” he said.

“Only one game was played in our league last week which was a somewhat unusual scoreline where Brighton beat Old Midwhitgitians 121-0. That suggests that the ground was hard and the Brighton had quite a lot of the ball.”

Brighton in fact were able to play on their 3G pitch, a luxury Tunbridge Wells do not have. They did though receive some encouraging news this week, when it emerged that last season’s player-of-the-year James Gwinnett is nearly back to match fitness after tearing knee ligaments which have kept him on the sidelines since the first month of the season.

Gwinnett is unlikely to be considered for the Heathfield game, but he could return for the trip to Aylesford Bulls next weekend.

Photo by BRUCE ELLIOTT