Our 23-19 defeat at the hands of Beccehamian kept us in 4th by virtue of the losing bonus point earned at the death, and Charlton Park losing 36-17 at Old Alleynians. The latter move into 6th spot after Deal & Betteshanger lost at home to promotion chasing Haywards Heath 24-30. Heath remain in 2nd but with a game in hand over Old Colfes who enjoyed a 48-29 win over lowly Dover. Dover are the other team with a game in hand but seem somewhat adrift in 11th place. Thanet Wanderers misery continues after losing 22-29 at home to Gravesend. I guess after the season they have been having it was inevitable that at some point we would see either the HWO or AWO from Maidstone. Unsure of the reason but Hove had a rest on Saturday as Maidstone failed to show. Real shame for the league. It is looking increasingly like a two horse race at the top; OCs and Heath, but below that down to Beccs in 9th there is not much daylight between the teams.

In London 3 South East our good friends over at Heathfield &Waldron endured a miserable day all round with a cold mist shrouding the Folkestone area and then having to drive home after a 12-5 defeat. From 0-0 to 26-27. That was Uckfield at Vigo. It sounds a cracking game against very tough opponents. It was more straightforward for Pulborough beating Gillingham Anchorians 43-26. Table toppers Ashford suffered a rare defeat at Bromley but still have a game spare over the chasers. Old Dunstonians beat Old Willies and Park House lost at home to Aylesford Bulls. The Willies look doomed but Uckfield and H&W in 10th and 9th look far from safety sadly.

In Sussex 1 "hoorah!" four games played this weekend. Crawley stay top after the narrowest of wins over Burgess Hill. Seaford suffered at the hands of 3rd placed East Grinstead. Hellingly lost at home to Hove II with Heath II losing to Barns Green completing the scores in this league. Eastbourne who didn't play remain in the hunt for promotion in 2nd place by the way.

Leapfrogging back to the higher leagues it was a bad day for Chichester in London 1 South losing away to Beckenham. A result which moves the South London outfit off the bottom. Horsham came away from Dartfordians with a good win which pushed the hosts to the foot of the table. Our friends at Medway suffered at the hands of the now table topping Havant. A high scoring league this as with the exception of the Chichester game all other matches delivered an average of 60 points per game.

Upwards into the Premier division where Brighton took the honours in the match with Sevenoaks winning 12-8. Tunbridge Wells endured a 11-22 defeat to league leaders Rochford Hundred. Bottom placed Guildford beat Bedford Athletic to keep their chances of survival alive whilst dragging the Athletic closer to the bottom. At the other end of the table it is Guernsey who leads the chase.

Before moving on it was another bad day for Twickenham losing this time at home to Old Reigations.

In the National Leagues TJs went back to the top of the table with a comfortable 41-14 win over Worthing. Bournemouth remain bottom despite drawing away at Westcliffe. Henley travelling to Redruth is the "trip of the day".

In National League 1 Canterbury made a real fist of it losing 29-28 to Cambridge. The joys of the M11 me thinks. Hull Ionians are being dragged closer to the bottom losing to the Rams this week. They are now on just 11 points the same as our friends from Kent. Richmond remain top after thumping Bishop's Stortford 51-10.

Neither Bridgnorth nor Salisbury had games this weekend.

Watched Quins thump Saracens. You can't read too much into this with the Barnet outfit missing many of their front line players to international call ups. That said Harlequins were mighty impressive and no matter what people might think those who did pull on the Saracens shirt would have had much on their minds other than the game itself. Futures are up in the air.

Talking of futures and as rumoured before Christmas, Kyle Sinckler is off to Bristol. There is a lot about clear vision and ambition and long term success in Sinckler's statement. Dear Kyle, as nice a bloke as you are, you have forgotten one sentence: "I am going to Bristol for the MONEY!!". Yours Bleater.

Yeap, Kyle Sinckler has 500,000 reasons to sign for Bristol.

Sean Edwards is set for his opening appearance as part of the French coaching staff next weekend. I for one think he will make a terrific difference and along with Galthie pulling the strings France could be a real force going forward.

More 6 Nations stuff as the week progresses.

I am not a huge basketball fan but as someone who loves sport you cannot feel anything other than sadness for the Bryant family after hearing the news about Kobe and his daughters tragic death yesterday.

I'll leave it there for today.

Sunday 26th Jan: 09:30

Not such a jerk after all. Here are my words from Thursday......

Will it be a tough day for the boys from Steel Cross on Saturday? Yes! Beccehamian away has always been a tough trip and the gap between us in the league means nothing. The boys will be buoyed by their performance against Thanet Wanderers but Beccehamian will want to reverse the defeat earlier in the season.

This is exactly how it panned out. A fired up Beccehamian side came out all guns blazing. They had us under the cosh very early on and there were predictions of 40 or even 50 point deficits if we had continued to play as poorly as we were. Beccehamian went out to an early lead before we finally got our act together. The home side were dynamic with fast hands across the field when their sizeable pack weren't rumbling forward. Our open field tackling was weak at times allowing players to get beyond the gain line or worse opening up gaps for the opposition centres to storm through. In the absence of Matt Botterman Alex Purnell led from the front and he dragged his forwards with him. Matt Ayres was a pocket dynamo keeping the home defenders honest and Tom West and Ali Main encouraged the backs to get the ball wide. We clawed ourselves back into the contest with some good tries of our own.

Watching from the side you wouldn't believe there were five league places between the sides. This was now an even contest and there was now hope that the men from Steel Cross could turn things around in the second half. For long periods that was exactly what could have happened. I use "could" because we were beginning to string good passes together and making ground. One excellent break saw Gus Weir go 50 metres but instead of the pass to the supporting player who would have strolled over he went on his own. The move broke down.

Deep in the home red zone we either coughed the ball up at the crucial moment or stupid indiscipline saw the referee quite rightly penalise us. From one such indiscretion Beccehamian broke clear and with some pacey support and accurate passing went over for the crucial try. This was compounded when we were penalised in front of the posts.

Crowborough rescued a losing bonus point when Tom West went over in the corner very late on with Connor Hand, who had had a good game overall, firing over an amazing touchline drop goal conversion. Final score 23-19. That losing bonus point keeps us in 4th thanks to the other results on the day. League round-up tomorrow.

What was the difference? I simply think Beccehamian wanted it more. We contributed to our won downfall in three areas: our open field tackling was weak at crucial times, our decision making was flaky and our discipline in the contact area was poor plus our inability to keep on the right side of the referee.

I'll leave others to comment on the referee as I want to talk about the assessor. Strutting up and down the side line in his RFU emblazoned coat, clipboard in hand and earpiece firmly in place. That's all well and good but I find it frustrating that an assessor is on the pitch at half time giving the referee advice of any description at this point in the game. There is the significant risk he then changes how he referees key aspects of the game thus confusing players and coaches alike. It doesn't matter if the referee manages aspects of the game incorrectly as long as he is wrong from start to finish. Changing the approach at half time hurts the game and can change the balance of power. I personally thought Beccehamian were on the wrong end of some of the decisions in the second half. To compound my criticism he strolled away to a bench a long way from the field where he had no chance of seeing the perpetual offsides at the ruck, a crazy knock on decision or our constant (and VERY frustrating) back chat to the man in the middle.

My good friend and former referee supremo David Oliver sometimes reads this nonsense so I hope he can give a definitive view on the acceptability of half time interference. Coaches and players are discouraged from talking to the referee at half time. I see no difference.

An interesting day in the Premiership. Sale beating Exeter at Sandy Park was a shock. Bristol beating Gloucester quite convincingly was not such a shock. Bath v Tigers looked a tight affair. Eagerly awaiting Quins v Saracens this afternoon.

Launchbury is out of the 6 Nations opener. He joins the growing list of stars across the nations missing due to injury.

Well done Leicester City, through to the next round of the FA Cup thanks to a 1-0 win at Brentford.

Finally something for you to ponder as you relax on this gloomy Sunday. Is the Coronavirus in China the equivalent of Chernobyl. Are the secretive and oppressive Chinese regime hiding the truth from the world. Is this virus more virulent and more widespread than any of us have been led to believe?

Saturday 25th Jan: 09:30

There I was puffing my chest out at Friday Club as people were praising me for how I get so much information out so quickly. Well, what do they know because I am a jerk. There I was saying the England squad players would be knocking seven bells out of each other this weekend. Oh no they won't. Of course they were at the pre 6 Nations training camps readying for next weekend's openers.

Its not only The Big Orange who can do "fake" news.

Anyway, to real news and here I make no apologies for continuing to big up the Friday Club. Yesterday the old codgers put their creaking and rusty bodies on the line getting the pitches and grounds ready for today's 2nd XV match v St Francis and the junior games tomorrow. It is amazing how good the A pitch is looking despite the weather we've had and the amount of traffic its endured. Yes it is boggy in parts and there are tons of sand covering the worst areas but by comparison to years gone by it is in good nick.

I also make no apologies for praising the work done by Jacqui and JP and the team. Yesterday I read an amazing testimonial on how we managed a recent celebration of life. Great stuff.

A quick advert for CRFC. The Past Players Lunch is Feb 22nd. This is one of the most popular events in our calendar. Contact me bleater@crowboroughrugby.com, Graysee, JP or Eddie B for more info and to book a place.

The report has been published and SKY have caused a storm by publishing a leaked and un-redacted version naming the players. Me, I don't see this as a problem as I think it is important to put the issue into context. Maro Itoje is one of the names and in a way that is what you would have expected. If Saracens had been relegated for overpaying bit part players then Saracens would have looked incompetent as well as unethical. The complexity of the issue and the timeframe justifies to some degree the punishment. It also, in my mind, confirms that Saracens are still way outside the cap right now, hence the refusal to open the books.

Scotland are in chaos with Finn Russell leaving camp after a bust up with the coaches about his drinking. Rather than be sent to the naughty step Russell just upped sticks and went home to France. Russell is probably the best #10 in Europe right now so this is a huge blow for Gregor Townsend. That said he and Russell had a half time shouting match during last season's Calcutta Cup game at Twickenham. Duncan Weir is called up to fill the gap.

On the injury from Scotland lose winger Darcy Graham and Wales lose Owen Lane, also a winger. Does that injury give Wayne Pivac the opportunity to blood Louis Rees-Zammit against Italy?

As you know my mother has joined the technological age and now has the internet. Hoorah! The downside is she is reading this rubbish and has already complained about me using the word "bullshit". Well Mum let me give you a perfect example of bullshit. Scarlets have announced a "rare" rugby profit. Firstly it is just £167k and comes only after directors and backers wrote off £4.6m in debt/loans. Yes revenue has gone up but do me a favour the Scarlets, along with just about everybody else at the top of our game across Europe are trading at a deficit. At some point my prophecy of unsustainability will come to fruition.

I watched Northampton Saints lose to a what seemed an international barbarians side rather than London Irish last night. Were there any British players in the squad? It was pretty enjoyable though and if that is what we are to be served up from now until the end of the season then happy days. The sending off was spot on.

That was quite a smack Piers Francis took but thankfully he was fine. Likewise it is pleasing to read that Michael Fatialofa has been moved out of intensive care but there is a very long way for him to go sadly.

Beccehamian beckons for me this afternoon so I'll miss the Mighty Foxes at Brentford. This is my 56th year supporting them so it is tough if you don't like me writing about Leicester City now they are finally playing at the top of their game.

Talking of football isn't it madness that some players are earning in excess of £300k A WEEK when the players even at the top of our game earn a similar amount per year?

It is not comparing apples with apples but we have the ridiculously expensive, massively over budget, already late and potentially a waste of time HS2 whereas the Chinese will build a hospital in Wuham to help cope with the coronavirus crisis in 10 days. Yes 10 days!By the way I think this is a crisis.

Just a throwaway comment. My daughter works for Public Health England at Porton Down. She and her colleagues have just become very, very busy right now.

Thursday 23rd Jan: 09:30

The 2s are due to host St Francis, also a 2pm kick off.

The Saracens soap opera continues. I received a well crafted and balanced view of how many of the fans of the Barnet outfit are feeling. At the very top of the list of frustrations is not knowing what is going and therefore "The PRL report has to be published in full"

The overall feeling is one of being badly let down by the lack of openness. There is a certain amount of hurt coming from how the players and coaches have been treated and the drip, drip, drip nature of the news is soul destroying. Quite clearly there is a lot of frustration with, and anger towards PRL which is enhanced by statements alluding to the belief that all other clubs are whiter than white.

There were other comments and suggestions made and I might come back to them next week dependent on how this soap opera develops. (I would have cut and paste the whole thing but using a steam driven PC to write this stuff stopped me from doing that)

As soon as I got the OK to use the information then I received another email detailing the letter sent to all registered Sarries fans by new Chairman Neil Golding. This addressed many of the points about openness and being let down and explained why Saracens had decided not to open their books because by doing so all it would have done would have been to prolong the agony. The letter makes it clear that despite rumours, conjecture, old and fake news the club is happy for the report into their wrong doings to be published in full.

No sooner had the letter been digested than the news broke that the report will be published in full but as of yet there is no date for that.

This will not be the end of the saga as the implications of relegation, especially for the Championship, and player retention will be hot topics. The impact from tomorrow onwards for the Premiership will be something to watch. Will sides no longer fearing relegation such as Leicester now be able to change priorities to winning the Challenge Cup for example. Will England suffer as key players minds are preoccupied with their futures. I don't know the answers but I guess over time we will.

The 6 Nations approaches. Ever wondered why England and France often fail to perform when Wales, Ireland and sometimes Scotland overachieve? Here is one reason: there are no Pro14 games this weekend. The home based players are with their squads having a well earned rest whilst the Premiership and the Top 14 players knock seven bells out of each other in full league programmes.

In the Premiership Bath V Leicester Tigers on Saturday will be interesting as will Bristol v Gloucester. I will watch Quins v Saracens on Sunday on the basis there is no other rugby option.

Some food for thought.

Greta Thunberg is in Davos. Yes she might not be flying but surely as an eco activist she a) shouldn't have a passport and b) surely Skype and FaceTime would work for her. She is racking up a lot of travel miles and no matter how environmentally friendly the transport is staying at home in Sweden makes much more sense.

A lollipop man has been told not to "high five" the kids crossing the road after ONE person complained. Why don't we tell that ONE person to get a life and recognise the value lollipop men, women, transgender add to the community and how their dedication saves lives.

Finally the great Monty Python hero Terry Jones has passed away. A real sadness for us of that generation. PLEASE, please, please will one of the TV companies be brave enough to air The Life of Brian as a tribute. After Shawshank Redemption probably the greatest film ever made.......... in my tiny mind anyway.

No blog tomorrow. Back on Saturday with any pre-match updates and an in-depth review of the impeachment of Donald Trump

Wednesday 22nd Jan: 09:30

Let me apologise for following just about every other rugby article that has been written in the last few days and start with Saracens.

Jonathan Liew has written an excellent piece for The Guardian about Saracen's ideology versus the money ploughed in by Nigel Wray. It is a fascinating read and in my mind sums up most eloquently some of the very positive reasons the men from Barnet have dominated the sport recently but this set against an undeniable truth. There is no disputing Saracens have one of the finest, if not the finest academy structures with a flow of talent coming through the system. Likewise their ethos of building a bond between the players and the players and the club has worked wonders. Their approach to the psychology of the game and encouraging players to improve their own lives via education is good stuff. There has also been a drive to be at the cutting edge of training techniques and I could go. The mantra being "good people make good rugby players". Here is the sting in the tail, more like a dagger to the heart, and that is NONE of this would have happened if it wasn't for Nigel Wray's millions. His largesse in writing off £50m in debt, rescheduling millions of pounds of other debts, and his willingness to plough any amount of money to buy success. Basically for all the good things it is a success that has been bought is the gist of Liew's article.

We Brits often rail against success rather than lauding it somewhat bizarrely but I think it is fair to say that when some of that success becomes tainted by dubious practices and accusations of cheating you can understand why. In the above paragraph you could change every reference from "Saracens" to "Team Sky" and "players" to "riders" and "Nigel Wray" to "Sky" and then you can understand why some are saying Saracens "financially doped" their way to the top.

In the same paper they printed an article where they have lifted comments from an interview with Lord Dyson who lead the review into the salary cap. I am surprised he commented but he has and the important thing to note is he questioned why the review that has condemned Saracens to relegation and a huge fine has not been published. He makes it clear there were "two particularly serious factors" which lead them to the decisions they made. From there he points the finger at PRL for the secrecy.

Interestingly in today's papers Darren Child, PRL's new head states unequivocally that the reason the report is being withheld is at the insistence of Saracens lawyers. This along with them refusing any sort of openness with regard to their books only heightens suspicion. Interestingly Childs insists no other club is breaching the salary cap. That is easy to say and hard to prove unless you forensically analyse the books of every club. Finally Steve Lansdown, Bristol's owner who makes Nigel Wray's wealth look like a bag of change by comparison has come out fighting saying Saracens should have been relegated sooner. Perhaps?

Before I lose the will and start thinking the Sussex's nonsense is fun Bill Sweeney at the RFU has said players from Saracens will not be ignored regardless of where they play. A departure from the norm but a sensible one. He also alludes to the fact that what is going on in Barnet is a matter for the PRL not the RFU. Basically heaping more of the brown and smelly stuff on them makes no sense.

For me this is where I would have wanted to start: Nigel Owens has suggested fewer substitutes could be a contributor to making the game safer. He is not the first to think this and it is something I wholeheartedly agree with. Testosterone fuelled leviathans coming onto the field with just 20 minutes to go charging into knackered players who have already put in a 60 minute shift is a recipe for injury. Wasps Alex Rieder recently retired at just 28 in the same piece has said the other major area to be looked at in terms of injury prevention is players charging into rucks to "clear out" often defenceless players defending their possession. Again I agree. Even at the grassroots level this is a problem so you imagine some of the forces being applied by the monsters who ply their trade in the top flight.

I will look ahead to the weekend tomorrow but leave you with a couple of thoughts from Paddy O'Fez who has questioned the fact I have been nice to him

Try to explain the enigma that is French rugby.
Will England ever win a RWC again?
What is the longest time taken to complete a scrum and why?
Does every professional player have some Irish/Scottish/Welsh ancestry? (I think this is a dig at the selection of Saracens Nick Tompkin by Wales).
Will there be any South African professional rugby players left in SA come 2021 when The Lions arrive?

I frequently use the word "hypocrisy" so here is a perfect example: "I will get as much press coverage of my split with my family and allow my wife to diss her in-laws and leave the country in search of solitude. We will then employ a barrage of PR and marketing gurus to help us promote ourselves BUT when we don't like the publicity we will sue". Now that is hypocrisy.

Finally if you ever doubted The Big Orange Trump was certifiably insane then watch his denial on climate change.

Tuesday 21st Jan: 08:30

I am going to start with Europe to get that out of the way. Put to one side the salary cap debacle for a moment I thought Saracens were mighty impressive against an excellent Racing 92. According to Paddy O'Fez the atmosphere was electric and Ben Earl was superb. Hanging on with 14 men and qualifying was the result of the weekend. Their reward is a trip to top seed Leinster. Exeter have guaranteed themselves a home quarter-final against the Saints but will face a tricky away semi-final against either Toulouse or Ulster if they win. Clermont v Racing 92 looks like a French firecracker.

In the secondary competition Dragons reward for qualifying is a trip over the Severn Bridge (now free of course) to Ashton Gate where they will face Bristol. Scarlets will travel to Toulon so I anticipate there will be no Welsh representation in the semi-finals. Bordeaux v Edinburgh and Leicester v Castres are more difficult to predict but I go home wins setting up Bordeaux v Bristol and Toulon v Leicester semis. Sadly that will mean an all French final me thinks.

It has been hard getting into the European matches this season (there is a Brexit joke in there somewhere but it hasn't come to me yet). Too many dead rubbers early on and uninspiring contests elsewhere. Lets hope the knockout stages can bring the tournament to life.

It must be bad when the Saracens story is on the news ahead of the fires in Australia and immediately after the bust up with the royals. My good friend Paddy O'Fez back after his therapy following the Labour party drubbing in the December election has been in touch. As always he makes some good points but it is in my opinion tainted by the Saracens eye-patch. It is sad to read like way too many things in the world today he thinks it is someone else's fault: the PRL, the administrators. No mention of the fact the club via Nigel Wray went way over the salary cap. That is Saracens fault and Saracens fault alone. They knew what they were doing.

He does make an excellent point, in fact a couple of excellent points. First until PRL release the full judgement and the findings we'll never know the true scale of the deceit and therefore the justification for the size of the punishment. This would also be in Sarries best interests and they could force PRLs hand by opening their books for all to see. This they have steadfastly refused to do raising the question do they have something to hide?

The second point and one which I have commented on is how white are the other eleven clubs in the league. Would their accounts stand up to the same level of scrutiny. I doubt it but we won't know this until PRL stops being so secretive and self serving and start looking at the bigger picture. This in itself doesn't make the Saracens situation any better.

Where I challenge my good friend, and yes we will differ on this but Paddy O'Fez is a top bloke so I'm sure he will allow me some leeway in challenging him on quoting the excellent Stephen Jones of The Times. Jones feels that no payment to a single player made a jot of difference to any match at any time. He believes Saracens were simply too good. In most respects that is 100% true. Saracens have been head and shoulders above the rest. However and this is my point; if Saracens weren't exceeding the salary cap (rumoured to by as much as 30%) would they have had such a plethora of stars at their disposal and therefore would they have been as good? Would Liam Williams, Sean Maitland, Will Skelton, Elliot Daley, Rhys Carre, Vincent de Koch et al have headed to Saracens if it wasn't for the money and Saracens overspending?

This will run and run but one outcome is from now until the end of the season we can test how a ring-fenced Premiership will work. With the fear of relegation now removed teams have European places to play for and that is it.

King Eddie has named his 34 man squad and it contains a couple of surprises. Along with the injured Jack Nowell, Billy Vunipola, Henry Slade and Piers Francis out goes Dan Cole and Ben Spencer. Is it the end of Coles international career? In comes Ben Earl, a well deserved selection, as is the inclusion of Saints full back George Furbank. Bath prop Will Stuart and Wasps fly half Jacob Umaga also get call ups. Where I am surprised is neither Ben Curry nor Alex Dombrandt are in the squad. I have seen quotes that this selection is one with an eye on the future. I can't disagree with that. It is a trip to Paris first up for England.

As an aside it was worrying for Wales to see Louis Rees-Zammit limp off in the game against Gloucester.

Thank you to those who have sent me mails supporting some of my outspoken views. I really do believe like Laurence Fox the time has come to speak out against political correctness, the snowflakes and the rampaging woke movement (whatever that means) and IT IS NOT ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE'S FAULT!!!

Finally having watched a piece on the news about people attending a course on happiness can I again leave you with a well used Caribbean quote; "happiness is a choice not a result". Perhaps I should sit down and ponder that thought myself!!!!!