Perfect conditions greeted a large crowd as Farnham welcomed Hove for the fourth round of the Intermediate Cup. The prize for winning this encounter is a place in the regional semi-final.
The game started at a romp with end to end sparring as both sides weighed up the opposition. Farnham were stiffened in the scrum with the return of Ian Williams in the row with Ben Adams. A revitalised Andy Naisbitt joined in-form Jules Joris in the front row with Marco Azevado. They laid down the challenge at the first two scrums by shunting shunted off their own ball. The signs were good.
On the back of this solid set piece, Farnham upped the pace. Half backs Ollie Brown and Toby Salmon were determined to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and Michael Salmon, acting as a one-man wrecking ball, devastated the Hove midfield time after time breaking tackle after tackle.
Hove broke out through No.8 Macdonald and camped in the Home 22. However, at the attacking scrum the Hove pack was decimated providing a pleasing sight the home support more used to retreating scrums over the past few weeks.
Farnham drove forward and went on a scoring frenzy. A penalty kicked to the corner produced an effective line out catch and drive. Joris was accurate to Adams and Williams steered the maul to score wide out 5-0.
After a kick off scramble, Andrew Kidd rescued the ball at the back of the maul and fed Ollie Brown. He released Toby Salmon who burst into the 22. Toby Comley was on his shoulder to receive the scoring pass and dotted down under the posts to give easy conversion points to the provider. 12-0.
Farnham were producing fast, accurate and crowd-pleasing rugby. Back they came from the restart putting Hove on the ropes. No 8 Rob Mitchell is illegally denied a turnover and the penalty is kicked to the corner. Ben Adams controlled the line out and plunged over for the score. Farnham knew it would be their day when the conversion bounces over off the cross bar. 19-0.
The Black and Whites poured forward again as first Toby Comley looped the backs to score out wide and then smart inter-play between Toby Salmon and Reece Stennett saw the latter score under the posts. 33-0 as half time brought forty minutes of quality open rugby to a close. This had been full on fifteen man rugby with every man involved, the back three of Ben Jones, Tom Cerullo and Reece Stennett shredding the visitors defence at will.
The second half witnessed even more audacious attacking rugby founded on rock solid defence. Michael Salmon back on the field after a Head Injury Assessment spearheaded attack after attack. Dec Kavanagh and replacement James Corlett all joining in the party atmosphere. Hove were simply suffocated. Their attacks were snuffed out and beaten back to provide opportunities for the Farnham scavengers. Ben Adams intercepted a defensive pass and romped over in the corner.
The Farnham pressure was unrelenting as first Ben Brown bulldozed over from a lineout followed almost immediately by a superb break out enabling Toby Salmon to put Dec Kavanagh over in the corner. Hove were on their knees but to their credit they never capitulated. Nevertheless, the end could not come soon enough and with the clock running down Michael Salmon put the icing on his man of the match performance to score under the posts giving an easy conversion to brother Toby. 55-0 the final score.

Playing fast and accurate rugby, this was a day when nothing could go wrong for Farnham. Almost every pass went to hand, every planned or called move came off. Those factors coupled with awesome defence ensured a great day for the Farnham boys.
Next week back to League action away at Old Emmanuel.
Presidents Podium:
Michael Salmon – 3 points – immense throughout
Andrew Kidd – 2 – fast emerging as one of the finds of the season
Rob Mitchell – 1 – another top performance with over ten turnovers between he and Kidd.