Luke Armstrong scored a fine solo effort for Deal at Old Reigatians on Saturday

Deal and Betteshanger Lions suffered their third London 2 South East defeat in four games when they lost 37-17 at Old Reigatians on Saturday.

Lions were 3-0 down with just two minutes played after a penalty by fly-half Nick Grant.

Handicapped by the late withdrawal of Bradley Box, who suffered a back spasm during the warm-up, Deal & Betteshanger went on to miss three easy penalties in the first 30 minutes which Box would probably have scored and conceded four further tries to turn around 25-0 behind.

However, Lions put in a much more spirited second-half display to not only get some points on the board but outscore the hosts 17-12.

The Lions opened the scoring early on. Taking a tapped penalty, they set up a maul and drove forward before releasing Anthony Hart.

Hart dummied to Wesley Bull and he touched down for the visitors’ first try.

Lions then lost second row Dan Atkinson to the sin-bin for an alleged swinging arm offence and Reigatians increased their lead with two further scores, one of which was converted, for a 37-5 lead.

But with the return of Atkinson, Deal added two further tries. One came from a driving maul which saw Sam Hanley score and the other was a solo effort from Luke Armstrong who scored under the posts. Martin Robinson converted.

Nick Ford scored 16 points as Dover Sharks won 21-17 away to high-flying Cobham in London 1 South.

Ford converted Mark Beaumont's first-half try, and then went over twice himself in the second period, adding the extra points on both occasions.