Hornets win comprehensively in strong performance

The pitch at Cranleigh was fairly heavy due to recent rains, but still had a lot of grass on it. The Hornet team marched out, lead by Captain Kieran Marshall, with black arm bands on. Both sides observed a minutes silence for Anthony Shepherd, a former Hornet’s player who recently passed away.

Farnham kicked off, playing toward the sunshine and unfortunately the ball sailed into touch. This gave Farnham the first opportunity for a scrum, and the Farnham pack immediately began to assert their dominance. This contest was to become a theme of the match, and the powerful driving of Sid Cranstone, Kieran Marshall and James Trodden saw the Cranleigh pack retreat and rotate throughout the afternoon.

Strong forward play stretched the Cranleigh defence to breaking point and Richard “Ralph” Philips crashed over to give Farnham a lead they would not relinquish. Following his first score, Ralph then bagged a further two tries, one from the back of the scrum and another from a powerful driving maul.

Excellent running from Ben “Scooby” Crean in the centres and back-row forward Fran Meagher created break-aways and allowed Farnham to get behind the Cranleigh defence. A strong run close to the line saw Dan Green blast through the would-be-tacklers only for the ball to be spilt as crossed the whitewash.

Keen to release the constant pressure, Cranleigh kicked the ball high and long, where Mark Baines caught it. He then counter-attacked, releasing winger Rob Brown who then popped it back to Baines. Brown then received it again, on some excellent interplay down the left wing that made 40 metres.

In another move, prop James Trodden, picked the ball up half way down the line, and then marauded through five Cranleigh players in a wild zig zag on his way to scoring. At half time Farnham were four tries ahead.

Following first half’s dominant play by the forwards, the Hornet’s backs decided to make the second half their own. Half backs Andrew Freshwater and Rory Walker didn’t see as many running opportunities as they might normally in this game, but released others to great effect. On a set play from the back of a scrum the midfield opened when Oli Richford took a great line through the defence and then passed to Ben Crean to score.

Substitute Henry Milas, clearly hungry for the ball, sprinted down the right wing in support of another run by Crean, but the ball did not go to hand. Milas was able to get a try shortly afterwards anyway, when an overlap was exploited to the right wing a second time. Next a highlight of the game, when Hornet’s second row player Dan Greene reminded his opposite man to behave himself as “Jesus is watching you.”

In a moment of frustration, an opposition player was sin-binned after elbowing Farnham flanker Tom Foster in the throat. A now tired Cranleigh defence, was again punctured shortly after when centre Oli Richford ran through a gap on the left, sprinting 30 metres and crossing the line; the fullbacks covering tackle arrived just too late. On the same side of the pitch, winger Rob Brown crashed over to score the last of Farnham’s tries. The conversion was successful by Freshwater, giving him a total of four for the day.

As the final whistle approached, Cranleigh scored a consolation try when the fullback broke through, making the most of an excellent off-load. The game concluded with a 48-7 result and Farnham very confident looking toward their next league game.

Written by Oli Richford