Farnham 23 – 19 Chipstead

In their most gutsy performance of the season to date Farnham secured a superb win against a large, well drilled and well organised Chipstead team relegated from Surrey 1 last year.

Farnham battled and scrapped and showed, in abundance, the character that has deserted them on a couple of occasions this season.

Preparations were hampered by the loss of Gareth Herrington in the warm up as he turned his ankle and spent much of the afternoon in Accident and Emergency. We all hope that it is not too serious an injury and that we will see Gareth playing again soon.

Farnham began the match with the sun behind them and were soon the dominant force and, as was the case last week, scored very early through Tom Coussins after some good phases put together by the whole team.

The try was converted and the score was 7-0 to the hosts very early on.

Chipstead then worked their way into a good position, aided by some poor work by the rearranged Farnham pack in the lineouts and they secured a push over try, directly from a lineout. The conversion missed, the home side were still in the lead 7-5.

Farnham then worked their way into the game and showed that they were dominant in all areas of the park before the returning, scrum cap wearing, Stuart Moore danced through the away team’s defence for Farnham’s second try.

The conversion drifted just wide, so the score was 12-5 at this point.

Just before half time Farnham extended their lead with a well taken drop goal by Chris Penn, the score at the break 15-5.

Farnham knew that if they could play with a little more patience and retained the ball better when in possession, they would go on to win this match.

As ever, though, it is not so straightforward and Farnham started the half badly, conceding a try early, which was converted. Farnham again undone by the Chipstead lineout work. 15-12 to the home team.

With the lead down to three points Farnham were spurred into action once more and a well worked move after several phases allowed Captain Toby Comley to flop over in the corner. The conversion from the touchline drifted just wide, and the scores were 20-12.

Chipstead responded once again through their well-organised pack, albeit with a little assistance from the referee to secure a try under te posts, which was converted, narrowing the gap to one point with fifteen minutes to play.

There followed a period of frantic play from Chipstead, in search of the win, but Farnham managed to work a penalty opportunity for the reliable Chris Penn, which was struck sweetly, restoring the lead to four points.

Chipstead knew that they needed at least a try to win the match and threw everything at the resolute Farnham defence. Farnham defended within their own twenty two for the last ten minutes and despite losing Dave Dyer to the sin bin, Farnham held on for the win.

Penn, Chris; Comley, Toby (c), Corlett, James; Hurley, David; Coussins, Tom; Moore, Stuart.

Replacements – Peacock, James; Dyer, David; Hills, Gabe.