After a cold wet morning it was relief that the ground was still playable and the game went ahead in front of a large crowd after a well supported VP's lunch.
It was always going to be an evenly matched contest with Norwich coming into the game in fine form including a good win against previous league leaders Diss in their previous game.
Walden had the better of the first quarter of the game with some determined attacks, they also seemed to have the edge in the scrums which was to prove crucial in the prevailing weather conditions.
After 18 mins Walden had worked the ball deep into the Norwich 22 and they forced Norwich to take the ball over their own try line. From the resulting 5 metre scrum the visitors conceded a penalty, Walden elected to kick to the corner and they set up a great rolling maul driving Norwich over the line for flanker Tom Pryke to score but the referee was unsighted and gave another 5 metre scrum.
Walden secured the ball, No8 Brad Baker peeled off the back and it took 2 players to bring him down just short of the try line. Quick ball set flanker Matt Holden up,he in turn took another player out and offloaded to scrum half Paul Marshall who jinked past 2 players to score under the posts, fullback Tom Price converted to put Walden ahead by 7 points after 20 mins.
There was no more score for the rest of the half as both sides struggled to get any further meaningful attacks.
Walden kicked off the second half and a great chase forced Norwich into making a mistake and they regained the ball. Immediately setting up an attack on the right sucking in the defence. Quick ball off the base of the ruck saw the ball fed down the line leaving left winger Ben Nash in just enough space to score in the corner. Tom Price kicked a fine conversion to put Walden 14 points up after 42 mins.
Walden were enjoying their best passage of the game and were soon launching wave after wave of attacks with backs and forwards combining to so nearly get over the for their 3rd try. However just when they thought they had created an overlap on the right the Norwich winger intercepted a pass running the length of the field to narrow the gap at 14 – 7 with still a quarter of the game to play.
Walden did not let this mishap get to them and they again worked the ball into the visitors half and forced Norwich into giving away penalty as they tried to slow the ball down. Tom Price kicked the 3 points to crucially put Walden 2 scores ahead at 17 -7.
Norwich had the better of the final 10 minutes as they got close to the Walden try line but some great defence kept them out with some fine scrummaging that often forced Norwich on to the back foot. Eventually time ran out without any further points being scored.
Walden were happy with the win cementing their position at the top of the table with 4 matches remaining.
Walden now enjoy a break next week before resuming their league campaign at Rochford for yet another crucial match.