Barnes won this in the 1st 1/2

Barnes secured the kick-off and kicked the ball back. Grinstead chipped over the line and regained possession and their fullback Betty broke into the opposition 22. The ball was then put through 6 varied phases to get the home team a penalty 14 metres out in centre field inside 2 minutes and fly-half Prescott kicked the points. In the first 10 minutes the home team's backs looked dangerous but afterwards that threat seemed to evaporate. For the next 10 minutes Grinstead still had the better of the opposition but without creating any opportunities. Then after Barnes got an advantage from an exchange of kicks they got a penalty that got them into the opposition 22; this was after about 25 minutes play and this marked the second turning point of the match. Just before the half-hour, fullback O'Toole levelled the scores with a penalty kick.

Barnes got another penalty after securing the restart and the Ref. spoke to the opposition. The visitors kicked for a line-out still in their half then set up a drive from the line-out to get to halfway then broke blind and went further to get another penalty 17 metres into the opposition half. This was kicked for a line-out 12 metres out, from which the pack started a driving maul. This went down 8 metres out but was restarted to get to 3 metres out then hooker Crossley took the ball over the line wide-out after 32 minutes. The conversion was wide. The visitors held out Grinstead’s last attack before the halftime whistle.

Not long after the 2nd half restart the visitors were attacking close to the opposition line and got a man advantage for 10 minutes. After 3 more penalties O’Toole kicked the third for the points at 4 minutes. After nearly 10 minutes of no advantage Grinstead put together their best sequence of phases, 12 in all, to get a penalty 18 metres into the opposition half in centre field at 16 minutes and Prescott kicked the points.

Grinstead were soon back attacking having stolen a line-out and then one of the Ref.'s independent assistants intervened and this resulted in Grinstead losing another man for 10 minutes at the end of the 3rd quarter. Grinstead’s defence kept Barnes out until they lost a third man for 10 minutes and that resulted in another 3 points for O'Toole at 26 minutes.

Despite the yellow cards, Grinstead had the better of the rest of the game. Soon after the restart they put together 12 phases, then after 2 penalties and keeping ball close they sent ball wider for centre Barkas to go over wide out with just over 3 minutes to go. The conversion was wide.

Dry, overcast but fairly bright, not cold, some wind; the pitch very soft in parts with short grass but capable of good bounce. The visitors had lost half an hour's pre-match warm-up and practice time due to traffic problems.

After the match it was marvellous to see Tim Chapman of East Grinstead in such good form, wearing his Harrodian RFC shirt. Tim was captain of the club that became Barnes RFC in 1960.