Missing seven first team regulars, Folkestone Rugby Club lost 21-17 at Crowborough on Saturday in London League 4 South East.

They made a great start, however, when after just 20 seconds Richard Lama charged down an attempted clearance before kicking on and touching down for a try that was converted by Seyhan Fell.

The euphoria from such an early gift didn’t last long, however, as the hosts reduced the deficit with an unconverted try.

Nevertheless, Folkestone extended their advantage to nine points when scrum-half Simon Harris’s kick was fumbled by the home defence, allowing Chris Gamble the chance to score.

Fell once again added the extra points, but between Gamble’s try and the teams leaving the field for half-time, Crowborough scored two tries on the back of woeful Stones’ tackling to take a 15-14 lead.

An early home penalty gave Folkestone further ground to make up at the start of the second half, and from then on it was hard for them to create anything in the way of a scoring chance.

Fell did manage to kick a penalty after the home team had infringed, reducing the deficit to one point.

But with fly-half Lama going off injured, and with all his substitutes used, coach Lee Jeffrey watched on from the sidelines as Crowborough added another penalty towards the end to take the points.