WARLINGHAM 7
OLD CATERHAMIANS 3

Warlingham all but secured the Surrey League One title and promotion in a nail-bitingly tense derby encounter against Old Caterhamians at Hamsey Green on Saturday.

But it took a controversial penalty try late in the game to give the Croydon club their first taste of promotion success for eight years.

Only defeat in the club's final league fixture of the season, coupled with an Old Cats' victory by 100 points on the same weekend, can deny Warlingham the Surrey title.

With Old Cats having the benefit of a keen wind in the first half the match was evenly fought for the first 20 minutes until the visitors were awarded a simple penalty for offside.

With Cats 3-0 up, the score would remain unchanged for nearly an hour.

Warlingham's nerves began to creep in, with missed line kicks and knock-ons happening regularly, and the edginess really showed when it came to chances to level the score.

With the elements in their favour in the second half, Warlingham eventually strung some good moves together resulting in another easy penalty chance for Marshall for foul play by a Cats forward who was sin-binned.

But again the kick was missed and it looked as if Cats would clinch an unlikely victory.

With Warlingham camped close to the Cats' line for scrum after scrum, they were wearing down the opposition. Into the final 10 minutes of the game, Old Cats collapsed the scrum once too often and the referee ruled that they had prevented a certain try.

From right in front of the posts, Marshall found his kicking boots and added the conversion.

The final whistle brought great relief to the Warlingham supporters, who can look forward to rugby in London division four in September.