TRINITY 19 OLD CRANLEIGHANS 16

“If by a man’s works shall ye know him, then you are a steaming pile of horse manure.” General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett.

This was far from the finest entertainment every served up at Lime Meadow Avenue, but in defence of the event itself, it began as it meant to go on and never sported the pretension to be anything else. The opening kick-off was knocked forward by a Cranleighan lock, picked up by a prop well in front of him and play continued. Thus was set the stage for ball handling that left a lot to be desired, neither side dealing with restarts with any conviction (Trinity at least managed to use the wind to get the kicks hanging, allowing the forwards a fair shot at challenging for the ball) and a rather random approach from the referee to penalising knock ons – and they were not in short supply. The first attacking phase, with OCs having a series of line outs near the Trinity line, also set the precedent that neither side were able to win good ball consistently from their own throw ins. The wind was a hindrance to the ball handling, but it was not bad enough to explain so much poor passing, and being straight across the pitch, the impact on the lineouts ought not to have been quite so dramatic.

The scoring was opened by Trinity, when Ben Telfer hit a good angle at pace, giving two or three defenders a chance to make fleeting contact but none solid enough to bring him down. Jack Greenwood converted for a 7-0 lead. At this point, Trinity did threaten to inject a bit of verve into the match, despite a penalty allowing the lead to be cut to 7-3. A Mark McEvilly pass out of contact went behind Callum True when it seemed that all that was needed to score was to catch it and fall over the line. True and Greenwood both got the ball down in the corner only to have had their foot graze the sideline a yard or two short and Ty Williams lost the ball forward reaching out to ground the ball when tackled right on the line. Having weathered this series of close calls, OCs would have been further heartened on the stroke of half time. A sloppy interception by Trinity was run back, and when the visiting fly half out ran his support, Dave Stanton’s textbook turnover was inexplicably penalised, with an additional yellow card to add insult to injury. The penalty was kicked for a 7-6 score that failed to reflect the balance of play throughout half.

The match had one aspect of the game that was going well for both sides and that was defensive diligence and resilience. Even that broke down in the second minute of the second half, as OCs over committed on their right hand side and Ty Williams was left with a gaping space and a sixty yard scamper home. Greenwood converted to make it 14-6. It did not take the visitors long to respond, with several phases that gained a couple of inches a time eventually allowing them to creep over the home try line to bring the score to 14-13. The game then spent a long spell being played in the middle third of the pitch, as OCs tried to kick themselves out of their own half, and Trinity sought to use the crosswind and slope to play for 50/22 options but repeatedly misjudged the breeze and put the ball directly into touch. A brief comic interlude came when Telfer, chasing his own in field kick, avoided making the pick up for a long gain by running into the referee, whose fluorescent pink London Society shirt seems, in this moment, to have failed to offer enough contrast with both teams’ fairly dark coloured kit.

The scoring during the game ended in fairly appropriate fashion. Ty Williams charged down a defensive OCs kick, only for it to bounce dead out of the try area. OCs tried to sneak a quick 22 drop out wide on their left, but Harry Wilson charged the kick down with his rear end and just got to the ball for the try as it teased OCs by threatening to trickle dead again. No spectator blamed the matchball for trying to escape what had become a turgid final thirty-eight minutes. Shortly afterwards a harsh crossing penalty (confusing line run by Trinity but no OC player attempting a tackle) allowed the visitors to reduce the deficit to 19-16.

At the very end, OCs had a lucky escape when a one-handed knock on by a defender inside their own five metre line was deemed only to merit a scrum. Trinity were penalised at the ensuing scrum, and OCs gave it a sporting go to try and run back a score. After several phases, OCs knocked on, Trinity started a counter attack and the ball being fumbled into touch brought the match to a merciful but fitting conclusion.

The plus for Trinity was getting the win in the bag after a series of bad results and the long injury list that had been a driving force behind those result showing the first signs of eaing a little.

Trinity line-up
Hall, Jupp, Bryant; Bacon, Spedding; McMillan, Vaillant, Hubbard; Greenwood, Crouch; True, McEvilly, Williams, Stanton; Telfer. Subs: Plumb, Scott, Wilson
MATCH REPORT: SImon McInnes
TRIBE ADVISORY PLAYER OF THE MATCH: TY WILLIAMS