extended their winning run at the top of National 3 London & South East to 18 matches with a 33-19 success over Westcliff on Saturday.Canterbury

However, coach Andy Pratt (pictured) saw his side work hard for their latest victory after they turned round at the break drawing 14-14 against a Westcliff side who were never overawed despite their lowly league position.

Canterbury scored two tries in the first half through Ricky Mackintosh and Wim Barrs, and three more followed after the break from Barrs, Peter Kelly and Tom Best, the latter the pick of the bunch after a superb run from halfway.

Kelly was yellow carded soon after his try and Canterbury also had Mark Livesey and Mark Lister on the sin binned in the closing stages, which meant they had to negotiate a final hectic seven minutes with 13 men.

Gravesend suffered their fourth successive defeat in N3 L&SE, going down 35-26 at second-placed Ampthill.

Gs had the Bedfordshire side worried in the first half after Jon Clement scored a try, converted by Dave Dorton, who went on to add four penalties.

Amphill, however, stepped up a gear after the break and Paul Boston completed a hat-trick of tries to give the home side victory, despite Sox Stevens scoring Gs’ second try, again converted by Dorton.