The Met welcomed the Christmas break with a fine win at Old Cranleighans, completing a clean sweep for December and returning to the League's top four.

The Met had recorded a scrappy victory when entertaining the Old Boys in September and were entitled to fear an ebullient home team on the Saturday before Christmas. Cranleighans have been a thorn in the Met's more recent history and noisy home support, buoyed by mince pies and mulled wine, might have given the hosts an edge. But in conditions that were anything but festive, the Police were focused on continuing a winning run that stretches back to mid-November.

Any thoughts of goodwill were quickly dispelled, the Met scoring their first of 8 tries within three minutes of kick-off. In under half an hour, the Met had recorded their try-bonus point and two more tries followed before Old Cranleighans were able to suck on their Christmas satsumas.

The half-time fruit may have been a nice orange but it was all red zone for the home side. Unable to make any headway against the strong-arm of the Law, Cranleighans did well to restrict the Met to just two second half tries. The Police, with open-side flanker Will Ferguson back to his ferocious best, exerted all round control in both attack and defence and their eight unanswered tries were a justified reward for a rousing display. Although Sam Druce had an uncharacteristic off-day with the boot, the team's 44 points was a worthy return for the Police, and restores this season's points differential to respectability.

Two tries each for Ferguson and scrum-half Joe Stirrup, a return to the scoring roster for Sam Bailey and another try for his front row partner Will Jarrett were supplemented by tries from two of the Met's senior midfield, Druce and captain Cormac Healy. Sam Druce added two conversions.

The Met go into the New Year just one point behind Chipstead with 38 points after 13 games, although they remain a long way behind the league's pace-setters, Old Wimbledonians and Old Caterhamians, who are on 54 and 58 points respectively. Cats suffered a surprise home defeat to Chipstead, their first of the season. Met's first visitors of the New Year are neighbours and bottom club Kingston on Saturday 4th January.

In the meantime, your matchday correspondent Gilbert Ball wishes all his readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.