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Dorking 1st XV 6 Jersey 1st XV 22
Caption competition short list:
This
year I am planning to take my summer holiday in Jersey
because…………………
(a)
(a) It’s a clash of Continental Europe, and a splash
of Britain where cosmopolitan city life meets leafy country
lanes and beautiful beaches
(b)
(b) I could get [shed] loads of money to play rugby
now I’ve had my hip replacement done
(c) (c)
Guernsey’s fully booked
# Delete
as appropriate
Disclaimer
This
report has been collated on the collective vague
recollection of several Directors of DRFC Trading Limited
who do not accept any responsibilities for inaccuracy or
misstatement. Copyright 2010 Grady- Mosley - Evans
Table
topping Jersey arrived in splendid sunshine at The Big Field
as we returned to the Club bleary eyed and more than a
little shabby after Lions Night (a David Judd Production)
the previous evening and in the presence of David ‘Dai’
Duckham MBE and the delightful Jean and Surrey Supremo
President Fred and Pat Batchelor. A combination of Red Bull
and antacid got us grimacing through the first couple of
pints and by the time we’d worked our way through half a
bottle of Buster’s finest restorative Rioja, consensus had
it that JCR Young had stolen the man of the match award from
amongst the Pride of Lions recollecting his sponsorship by
and significant consumption of Rothmans who provided forty a
day and John the same accolade in the Sons of Lions section
for his reminiscence of the great Sir Carl’s off field
activities on the three month boat trip to Australia.
A quick
glance at the programme reminded us that Jersey had equally
little trouble scoring with centres Donovan Saunders and Sam
Tuia having notched up over fifty tries between them and
number eight Trower weighing in as third top try scorer in
the division with a paltry fifteen touch downs. Closer study
of the league table showed Dorking a full forty five
points behind Jersey in the table who had amassed eighteen
points in bonus points alone. And yet it was the massive
under dogs who were to get off to the better start. With Qin
restored to the row with ‘Arri, Dorking’s avowed policy of
playing “in Jersey’s faces” had immediate effect and clearly
unnerved even the Pacific islanders composure and expected
procession of points. From the get go the Dorking pack
fronted up to the bigger Jersey set and were soon executing
the phases with accuracy and momentum. An early mass bundle
with predictably Catty at the bottom seemed to settle any
big game nerves. Ollie and Chris Beer held solid in the set
giving James parity in the scrum. Jersey always looked
menacing but stout Dorking defence stopped them breaking
free.Jason and Mike MacFarlane were purposeful and
persistent producing penalties for Matt to confidently chip
Dorking into six point lead. We were also playing some
decent rugby Matt mixing it up nicely threatened further
with Lovey and Qin having a couple of sparkling runs off
Matt’s shoulder while Spencer was having a red letter day
dancing through a number of would be tacklers. Qin and
Armand showed they were every bit as adept as Jersey giving
and taking contact. And when Jersey did gain ground Ben
Tyler belted it a very long way back down towards the
village. Seemingly shocked by the lack of respect they were
being shown by Clarkey and Gary Johnston in the Dorking
defence, Jersey however steadily started to shake off the
after effects of a night stop at the Gatwick Europa. The
splendidly hirsuite Vaioletti single handedly forcing a
series of penalties for goodness knows what allowing Hawkes
to chip away to first level the scores and then go in a mere
three points ahead at the break.
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And it
was equally close at the start of the second. Spencer
continued to see plenty of ball and Ben Tyler was clearly
enjoying the time and space operating from full back. Armand
was still matching his illustrious opponents stride for
stride and we spent long periods on Jersey territory. Ollie
was at his sniping best but without being able to engineer
the decisive break instead forcing Jersey to resort to
conceding penalties in a desperate attempt to burst
Dorking’s bubble. Critically in the context of the game
Matt’s ordinarily reliable radar was to malfunction in the
first phase of the third quarter, completing the set of
sliding a penalty wide, dropping one short and
then agonizingly smacking a third off the upright. The rugby
gods were obviously bestowing their favours elsewhere. And
Jersey were simply too good a side not to take advantage of
the let off. Big lock Rogers made a clean break and despite
some decent scavenging defence from Gary and Rob Clarke,
Tuia started to show why he tops the stats table. Jersey
also started to profit from some rather relaxed refereeing
of the offside laws by we thought an otherwise excellent
match official.”Hussein Bolt couldn’t have got there as
quickly as that” Swerve observed with typical impartiality.
Incisive running from visiting full back Le Bourgoise (no,
honestly) had us all at sea forced back deep into container
corner where the Channel Islanders turned on the turbo and
marched over out of sight on the far side of the marquee.
Hawkes was unable to convert from far out but did slot the
subsequent penalty to put the champions elect seventeen six
ahead. While we were still very much in the game with Jason
going toe to toe with the Polynesian force in the visiting
back row, any faint prospect of taking points from the
fixture were finally extinguished when Jersey were
controversially awarded the put in at the scrum after a mess
in the line out appeared to come off a Jersey arm. Once more
Jersey made the most of their good fortune getting the nudge
in the scrum and man handling the Dorking eight back for a
push over try and an extremely flattering score line. While
the game was up, we didn’t give up and went in searc of a
score in an exciting finale. We had the now weekly BamBam
cameo and a run on for young Nick Haigh. Armand and Ollie
ran a couple of quick penalties and Gary went close in the
corner but heroic defeat it was to be. The Duckhams
indicated right into Kiln Lane back towards Warwickshire
with a pretty favourable impression of rugby in Dorking.
In the
post match press comments Director of Rugby Richie Andrews
said; “To come away without any points and to drop places in
the league after that performance is incredibly harsh. We’d
said all week we needed to be at the top of our game to
compete with Jersey, and we certainly were. The score line
probably flatters Jersey and we can be extremely proud of
the boys who played out of their skins against a side I
expect to be near the top of National Two this time next
season. If we maintain those performance standards we will
cause more than a few problems for the teams we have still
to play.”
David
Duckham Man of the Match: Ben Tyler (Luke Bryan)
Richie
Andrews Man of the Match: Spencer Richards (Box Hill
Caravans)
Date for
your Diaries; Whole Club Awards Dinner Friday 14 May
Squad: Ben Tyler (Box Hill Caravans) Spencer Richards
(Box Hill Caravans) Simon Love (International Sports
Marketing Limited) Rob Clarke (Absolute Self Storage), Gary
Johnston (CVC Capital Partners) Matt Noble ((The Running
Horses Mickelham) Ollie Cummings ( Jaques Construction
Group), Jason Geldenhuys (W Songhurst Limited) Mike Mac
Farlane, Harry Watts (The Running Horses Mickelham) Armand
Roux (The Running Horses Mickelham) Qin Wiseman (St Johns
Leatherhead) Ollie Buckland (The Black Horse, Reigate),
James Catton (Mrs Osbourne) Chris Beer Absolute Self
Storage) Julian Bambridge (Luke Bryan), Nick Haigh
(Cranleigh School)
The Chairman |
