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Farnham Vets Merit Table season has seen a slow start with two games called off by opponents and a heavy away defeat for a scratch side at Old Paulines. They did, however, finally get their league campaign properly under way on Saturday with a win away at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals. Fielding a mobile but relatively lightweight pack, Farnham were pleased to find that they still could dominate the scrummage and take much of Guy’s ball. This enabled the back line to run hard at the Guys defence and the main surprise of the early stages was that Farnham had not established a convincing lead. Time and again passes were adjudged forward or knocked on with the line beckoning, but eventually Goode fed Bickerton who ran fast and straight for the line to open the scoring. A long period of further pressure by the forwards followed but the ball was never quite released to the backs at the optimum moment and the only other score of the first half was a penalty kicked by Broughton. Farnham were looking to re-establish their momentum in the second half but an injury to one of the Guys props brought uncontested scrums and this enabled the home side to gain useful ball for their youthful backs for the first time. The game then became a much more balanced affair. Some promising and elusive breaks by the Guys backs were well defended by Farnham and Guys managed to deal with Farnham’s powerful drives and direct running. With the fire taken out of the game by the friendly scummaging Farnham were able to put the game out of reach when Meakin kicked a penalty to make the game safe
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