No Opposition, No Problem; Farnham play themselves

The Hornets warmed up for an hour in the wind and rain, becoming increasingly concerned that the opposition had not yet arrived. Unfortunately, like a lonely child at Christmas finding nothing under the tree, the opposition never came.

It seems there was a miscommunication, and the message that Bec Old Boys had to bin the game never got through to the players or the ref on the Friday. Rumours that Sam Greensitt has moved to play for Bec Old Boys remain unverified.

Having gone through the effort of warming up and as a referee was already on site; Farnham thought that they would go ahead and play some form of rugby anyway. A few players bid farewell to the lads and went off to involve themselves in other activities. The remaining players split themselves into two sides, nine players on each, and decided to have a short match.

So with one younger side in the old black and yellow strip, versus a more mature side in the new black and white hoops, the game kicked off. The yellow team received the ball and struck first through the pace of flanker Greg Mungall. He found a gap and out-paced winger Mark Baines to the line, spectacularly diving over the whitewash and winding himself in the process. Little did he realise that this would start a trend for the match, and it was very quickly decided that tries would only be valid if the scorer dived over the line.

Connor Rumpson doubles the lead soon after for the yellow team, using his long stride to great effect. Determined to get something back, the white hooped team held onto the ball and powered forward. The superbly moustached Dan Ross marauded through several tackles and sucked in defenders. Andy James could then take advantage of the space and covering defenders, diving over himself to peg one try back.

Momentum was with the white team and a long run from normal fullback Andrew Freshwater saw him set-up Mark Baines for a score in the corner. Both teams were temporarily out of action when an unfortunate incident saw a few players walk away from a ruck with some dog poo on them. These players will remain nameless, but you know who you are!

Ollie Brown seemed to have never-ending supply of energy running constantly around the defence and proving difficult for defenders to get their hands on him. His mazy running with hundreds of tiny steps gave space for Greg Mungall to score another try and give the lead back to the yellow team.

Matt Kelleher scored an impressive try, breaking a few tackles with power and moves, before moving through the gears and streaking away to score under the posts. Next up, Seb Murray got the ball out wide and used his pace to round the defenders to get himself over the line. But he just put the ball down, there was no dive. The referee (and credit to him) recognised that this was foul play due to the extra unwritten law that had come into play for the game, called him back for unsportsmanlike conduct, and gave a 22 to the white team. The mini-juniors were still finding toys on Sunday morning, such was the explosive and dramatic way in which Mr Murray expelled them from his pram.

Sid Cranstone knew the score, quite literally, and having seen his team mates get held up short twice already, decided to use his mass to crash over. A never-before-seen combination of grace and power.

Mark Baines scored one back for the white team, diving over in a fashion that would not have been out of place on the turf of Stamford Bridge.
Rob Brown powered away for another score and Mark Baines managed to seal his hat-trick on a beautifully executed cross-field kick from Andy James.

A late collision between Dan Greene and Sid Cranstone, seemingly between an unstoppable force and immovable object, would not have been out of place had it occurred at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern.

The game was won by the yellow team but the score was not important in the player’s minds. Everyone retired to the clubhouse bar to watch the autumn international fixtures.

Overall a disappointing weekend for the 2s but they are all looking forward to next weeks non-league game away at Weybridge.

By Oli Richford