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Stoke win local derby Basingstoke
43 pts v Camberley 15 pts Basingstoke were never behind in this game although they missed opportunities to better their points difference and to wrap up the game. Playing into the wind and up the slope in the first half Stoke immediately took a grip on the game scoring 3 tries and two conversions in the first 20 minutes to all but finish the game. The first try came after patient build up play eventually created an overlap for Ian Calder to cross in the corner. The second came after Stoke had soaked up a first bit of pressure from Camberley and then broke free. Good link up play eventually allowed Fraser Jones to score under the posts. Ian Calder converted. Stokes final score of the first half again ensued good build up play as Dave Lambert crossed for the first of his two tries and Calder again converted for a 19-0 lead. Stoke seemed to think that the job was now done and went to sleep allowing the visitors back into the game, just as they had a chance to finish the game off. Camberley recorded their first points of the game after 27 minutes when they attacked the blindside from a scrum and took advantage of the referee blocking a stoke defender to score in the corner. The lead was further reduced as Camberley recorded a penalty and then a converted try under the posts on the stroke of half-time to give Stoke only a 4 point lead after dominating the half. The second half was disturbed somewhat with the Camberley hooker suffering a serious injury after only 4 minutes. When play resumed it was scrappy and disjointed until Dave Lambert scored his second try after 13 minutes of play. Calder converted. Stoke again applied pressure and crossed again to wrap up the game after 16 minutes. A speculative kick from Calder was well gathered by Fraser Jones who fed Chris Norton who scored a converted try under the posts. A number of opportunities were missed by Basingstoke in the following minutes, however they did increase their advantage with two tries from Calder and Neal Taylor to give a final score of 43-15. This was an encouraging performance from Basingstoke from which many positives must be taken not least the depth in the squad that was shown as Yann Cullum picked up the man-of-the-match award . Fraser Jones, Marcus Reeve and Jason Rees also impressed in their first starts for a few weeks and Rob Northcote was solid in his deput. After the game Calder said: It was a good opening 20 minutes to put the game beyond most doubt but we must learn not to take our foot of the pedal like we did. It was not our best performance but we got the two points on offer. There were good performances from Yann Cullum and Matt Evans and we showed good depth with 7 replacements coming in from the Redruth game and all playing well". NEXT GAME Saturday 2nd November away to North Walsham,National 3 South.
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