Latest Match Reports
Croydon Cruise through Cranleigh
Croydon at last began there league campaign with a home fixture against Cranleigh. The match began a little late,
with the opposition held up by late cry offs and traffic problems and took the field with 14 men. The first 10 minutes
were very even with both sets of forwards evenly matched. Any ground Croydon made was counteracted by giving
away stupid penalties for not being behind back foot or in at the side and were promptly kicked 30 yards back down
the field.
The breakthrough came when Cranleigh tried to run a Croydon attacking kick from their own 22, the home pack
were quicky there to force a ruck and 2nd row Billy Simons emerged with the ball to crash over in the corner, the
conversion from the touchline was narrowly missed.
From the restart, Croydon 2nd row Crozier caught the ball and charged into the opposing forwards, quick ruck ball
was popped to the flanker Jay Blake who stood in at captain on the day, another direct thrust took him to the 10 metre
line, his back row colleague, number 8 Salvidge was on hand to take the pop pass, beat 2 tacklers and out sprint the
cover to touch down under the posts, Woodhams easily converted.
The next 10 minutes were very even, the home teams thrusts were undone by poor discipline and penalties were
conceeded. Croydon finally managed to put together 4 phases of play with the forwards managing to win quick ball,
which allowed speedy number 8 Salvidge to tear away from just over the half way to score again under the posts, the
conversion was good. This score seemd to take some stuffing out of the away team and Croydon at last began to get
territory. From a lineout 12 metres out, Croydon secured their own ball, drove on, tying in most of the opposition pack
allowing hooker Bayford to peel off the side, dance around a couple of backs, similar to Fred Astaire in his heyday at
dive in at the far post, Woodhams again converted. Half time score 26-0.
The second half began as the first, with a reinvigorated Cranleigh showing further determination, they spent some
time in the Croydon half but determined defence and fierce tackling forced them to kick for space, from one of these
thrusts, full back Curtis put a superb cross kick in, the chase from replacement winger Earl was good, tackeld his man,
got to his feet and popped a superb pass to Woodhams to race way and score under the posts, he easily conveted.
Crodon now dominated with the backs making bigs holes in the opposition line and only a combination of bad handling
and last ditch tackling prevented the backs adding to the score. As Cranleigh tired Croydon bagan to find more space
and quick ball moved through several hands allowed centre Woodhams a stroll over the line for his2nd try and added
his conversion. It was nowone way traffic and Croydon should have scored further tries before substitute number 8
big Dave Thornton picked from an attakcing scrum and took 3 opponents with him over the line to score, a welcome return
to action for Dave who has missed 3 months with an ankle injury.
Cranleigh rallied for last 5minutes and maybe were unlucky not to score a consolation try as the home defence determidly
kept them out. Final score 47-0. Cranleigh deserve credit for keeping going all way through as one man down.
Coach Ian Golding said, a good team performance, a lot of guys had their best game of the season and at last are
starting to possess a more cutting edge with some of the work we have been working on in training paying off. We are
still conceeding too many penalties for stupid things like back foot offences which better sides will punish us harder.
Thanks to Blake for captaining the side, do not like to single individuals out particuarly when the team played so well
but Blake and Woodhams had outstanding games and replacements Thornton and Earl had very strong games.
Do hope Woodhams and Crozier can sort out their employers so can be available for our next league match, feb 3rd
away at Raynes Park.
