Basingstoke go down at home

This was another poor performance from FX backed Stoke who again held parity for 35 minutes trailing only 12-3 at this point. Too many times during the match Stoke gave away or lost possession to easily and turned promising field positions for their opponents to clear their lines and thereby relieve any pressure. The game started badly for the home team conceding a try after one minute to trail 5-nil.For the next 27 minutes Stoke proved equal to the visitors and during this spell Calder converted a penalty on 8 minutes. On 27 minutes whilst in the visitors 22 Stoke gave away possession again and Westcombe made the home team pay with a converted try to lead 12-3. Each time Stoke put any phases of play together errors crept into their game and again Stoke were punished on 36 minutes when losing the ball in the visitors half to enable the away side to score an unconverted try. Stoke did reply in the final moment of the first half with another penalty from Calder to make the half time score 19-6 to the visitors.

The second half started almost as bad as the first when on 4 minutes the visitors number 9 pounced on a loose ball from a line out on Stoke's 22 hacked the ball on twice and with a perfect bounce into his arms, gathered and scored by the posts and the conversion left Stoke trailing 26-6. The visitors scored again on 14 minutes an unconverted try to lead 31-6. At this point the home side seemed to drop their heads and allowed the away team to begin to fully dominate the game. In the last quarter of the game the visitors ran in a further 5 tries 2 of which were converted to finish winning the game 60 points to 6. One of the tries was a superb effort from their number 10 who sliced through the Stoke defence from inside his own half and then out pace any cover to score a great solo effort. In a game that had few positives for the home team Calder led by a committed performance and was ably assisted by Buckland in the backs and Dixon along with St. Bernard in the forwards.

If Stoke are to turn around their season they need all 19 players every week to show the same commitment for the whole 80 minutes.
Calder added after "It is now not a time for talking it is a time for application to go out and perform as a team."

Final Score Basingstoke 6 pts v Westcombe Park 60 pts

NEXT GAME Saturday 3rd January away to Old Patesians k.o 2:00 pm.
                

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