BILLERICAY suffered a narrow 18-15 reverse at home to league leaders Mersea Island in London Four North East on Saturday.

The visitors have made a fine start to the season and have yet to lose but they were given a stern test by Dave Harries' side.

Mersea crossed the try-line early on as their lively number eight scored out wide to make it 5-0.

But Billericay were immediately back in the game with a try of their own as their forwards used their dynamic pack to surge over the line.

Robinson failed to convert a tricky chance for the conversion and the rest of the half was end to end action with Billericay twice going over the Mersea line only for the tries to be ruled out by the referee for being held up.

Despite some great play from both sides there were numerous penalties awarded to both teams with a Mersea prop being sin-binned mid way through the first half.

The Mersea scrum half soon put his team ahead at 8-5 and Billericay then wasted two straight forward penalty attempts which could have given the home side a deserved half-time lead.

After the break the game did not fail to disappoint and the Billericay forwards, who had a great game against a strong Mersea pack, continued to impress.

But it was Mersea who scored first as a fine move led to them scoring to the right of the posts with the scrum half adding the conversion.

From the restart Mersea piled more misery on their hosts by immediately scoring again by Billericay fought back bravely and did not give up.

After a well-worked team move and sustained pressure on the Mersea line, Ashley Browne managed to sneak in the corner but the referee signalled for a line out instead of awarding the try.

They did eventually get some reward for their play with Warren Woodward, who was playing his last game for the club before moving back to South Africa, managed to evade three tackles to dart over.

Richard Davies then also scored a try to set up an exciting final few minutes but Billericay were unable to conjure up another score as they suffered a narrow defeat - much to the disappointment of Harries.

"We felt we deserved the win as we dominated territory and were unlucky to not be given three tries which looked clear cut to me," he said.

"We also missed three conversions and two penalties. If we had scored those we would have won comfortably. The lads should be disappointed with themselves as they were the better team but ultimately, were undid by their inability to convert their chances."

Elsewhere, South Woodham Ferrers moved up into second with a 41-17 win at Campion and Basildon were also successful as they beat bottom of the table Crusaders 36-13.

Canvey Island remain in ninth after a 13-13 draw at Beccles.