Farnham hosted Old Haileyburians, who were bottom of the table and without a win all season, on Saturday at Wrecclesham. Farnham also knew that Old Haileyburians were the only team to have beaten them twice last season, so they could not be taken lightly.

With the top two sides playing each other this was an important fixture to win and Farnham did just that against a well organised and committed Old Haileyburians team who have progressed quite far since the early season demolition by Farnham at their ground.

After twenty minutes the score was 3-3 with both sides having converted a penalty apiece and Old Haileyburians were very much in the game, indeed, they were applying pressure to the Farnham line when Sam Lilley won the ball, off loaded to Alex Carlsson who in turn passed to the Lightning Toby Comley who beat his man and with electric pace ran the length of the pitch supported by Chris Penn. The try was duly converted by Chris Penn, the score now 10-3 to the home side.

Another penalty followed and the score at half time was 13-3.

There was much toing and froing for the rest of the half with neither team able to apply real pressure, Old Haileyburians were seemingly incapable of winning their own lineout ball and Farnham seemingly incapable of retaining possession at the breakdown.

At half time the talk centred around making sure of the win before trying to go on to secure the bonus point, which could be so crucial in such a tight promotion race.

Deane Chiverton had a try disallowed for an apparent knock on before both Toby Comley and Pete Daly scored second half tries, both converted by Chris Penn, who followed up with a penalty to round off a fine day with the boot.

Unfortunately Farnham were unable to find the fourth try which would have secured the bonus point victory, the final score 30-3.

Old Haileyburians have improved much since Farnham played them at the beginning of the season and Farnham will be hoping that their quest to avoid relegation will enable them to pick up some points against Farnham’s promotion rivals.

Farnham will know that there is much hard work to do before a tough away trip to Kingston in the Surrey Cup this week, followed by what will be a very physical match away at Old Emanuel in the league on 28th January. The winner of that fixture will be another step closer to promotion from what is proving to be a very competitive league.