WESTCLIFF surged out of the National Three London & SE relegation zone and up to 10th in the standings with a hard fought 34-29 win at Amersham & Chiltern.

Westcliff fought back from 29-21 down in the closing stages to secure a second successive win.

But first team manager Rick Compton refused to get carried away about the performance. “We will still have to examine and consider some of our decision making, the poor execution and, in particular, the horror 10 minutes in the third quarter which almost handed the game to our hosts,” said Compton.

“Our minds will now turn to a tough test against high flying Bury St Edmunds next week.

“But, in the meantime, we will enjoy the exhilaration of an unlikely and very important comeback and the satisfaction of lifting ourselves for now at least out of the bottom three.”

Amersham opened the scoring with a penalty before a converted try put them 10-0 up after 20 minutes.

Westcliff soon hit back with a try from Sam Reynolds which was converted by Jack Jones but Amersham still led 10-7 at the break.

However, eight minutes in to the second half, Westcliff went in front as Reynolds again applied the final touch to a move and Jones added the extras to make it 14-10.

But poor discipline at the breakdown following the restart allowed an Amersham forward the freedom to charge through the middle of a ruck without a hand being laid on him.

He sprinted deep into the 22 before offloading to a supporting runner who jubilantly crossed the line unopposed.

The try was converted to make it 17-14 but worse was to follow in a mad 10 minutes for Westcliff.

Jack Hopkins was soon yellow carded before a stray pass from Greg Bannister went straight in to the arms of an Amersham winger who touched down to score.

Another well worked try then made it 29-14 with less than 20 minutes of the match remaining.

But Westcliff began to hit back and their pressure resulted in a home forward being sent to the sin bin.

From the resulting kick to touch, Westcliff caught and drove over to score, with Ewan Binneman touching down to cut Amersham’s lead to 29-21.

With Westcliff continuing to pile on the pressure, Amersham had another player yellow carded and the visitors took full advantage with Jones touching down and kicking the conversion.

That cut Amersham’s lead to just a point before Jones again took centre stage.

He held his nerve to kick an 80th minute penalty and then added a drop goal in the dying seconds to secure a valuable victory for Westcliff.

Westcliff: Argentieri, B Reynolds , Parmenter, Mamea, Bannister, Jones, Morrant, Brown, Hopkins, Binneman, Dartnell, Anderson-Brown, Cosgrove, Scoggins, S Reynolds

Replacements: Dellas, Smith & Dudman.