Brilliant Basingstoke win at last!

Westcombe Park 27 pts v Basingstoke 44 pts
Fx-backed Basingstoke returned to winning ways on Saturday, as a brilliant second half display blew away opposition Westcombe Park. This was a particularly pleasing victory for Basingstoke as they had previously lost to the Kent outfit earlier in the season. The opening exchanges of this game were fairly even with Stoke making the early inroads into the Westcombe 22. But by trying to force extra passes when that weren't needed they were unable to convert two good attacking positions into points. Surprisingly it was Westcombe who took the lead with a penalty after 15 minutes.
Westcombe extended their lead straight from the restart after a Stoke drop-goal attempt was charged down and fly-half Ben Thomas ran 60 metres to score a converted try. Stoke slowly worked their way back into the game with Kelvin Chapman dominant in the lineouts and a solid scrum setting a platform for the backs to attack. This was rewarded with Ian Calder penalties on 21 and 30 minutes after continued pressure. After getting back into the game Stoke almost threw all their hard work away when sloppy defending from a lineout allowed Combes scrum-half to run 50 metres and nearly score, denied by a superb covering tackle by prop Steve Buttle who empetimized todays performance. For the remaining 5 minutes of the half Stoke were forced to defend numerous lineouts and attacks. But excellent defence limited Combe to a drop-goal and a 13-6 half-time lead.

A major turning factor in the game occurred just 4 minutes into the second-half as Stoke applied continued pressure and as a try seemed certain a Combe forward killed the ball and was subsequently yellow carded. Stoke took full advantage of this by first converting the penalty and then putting Yann Cullum in for a try which was well converted by Calder from the touchline to give Stoke a lead they were not to lose. Stokes cause was helped further by the referee as he awarded a penalty try when Dave Lambert was tackled without the ball when he was clean through to score. Calder adding the conversion which meant that 17 points had been added whilst Combe were a player short. Despite Combe returning to full strength Stoke were not to ease up as Tom Dean crossed from a five metre scrum after 20 mins. Calders conversion put Stoke 30-13 points ahead and all but rapped up the game. Combe were not going to take things lying down though and when Neal Taylor was sin-binned Thomas crossed for his second converted try. With 6 minutes remaining Neal Young, playing his first game for several weeks broke Combes defence and scored under the posts for a converted try and a 37-20 lead. But neither side was finished as both added an extra converted try in the closing minutes.

Calder scored Stokes and added the conversion to bring his tally to 24 points and give him a 100% kicking record for the game. This was a pleasing display from Basingstoke after their recent poor run. The lineouts and scrums were particularly pleasing and with every back making at least one break, as a result of excellent rucking which gave the backs the quick ball they needed. More importantly was that Stoke were prepared to play in the opposition 22 and stay there until points came.

Afterwards Calder said "Today we played for eighty minutes which typfied the effort and committment put in by all the players. The dissappointment of last weeks defeat galvanized the players to give 120%. As a result of the overall team performance it was justified that we had joint player of the day in Kelvin Chapman for the forwards and Yann Cullum for the backs. However special mention should be given for the tireless workrate of our captain Richard Baker and the typical performances of Della-Savina, Tom Dean and Neal Taylor."

NEXT GAME Saturday 7th December home to Old Patesians,National 3 South. k.o 2:15 pm.
                

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