Twelve try festival on a cold but dry day!
By Paddy Ralston
King's 2XV 52 Old Cranleighans 2XV 24
The scoreline suggests an easy win for King's but in reality it was only 2 to 1 in try scoring ratio.
Neil Williams trusty boot converted 6 of King's 8 tries while OCs only coverted 2 of their 4 to create a larger defecit than the game suggested. If OCs had scored instead of dropping the ball over the line and again at the end of the game when only a miraculous tackle stooped them it would have been a close game which could have gone either way.
King's gave all their players a good run including the three who had alleady played in the aborted 3XV game.
Paul Calaminus,
Mike Beale and
Alistair Stables did sterling service as Blues and King's attempted to field the elusive 3XV. Sadly the game had to be abandoned after a nasty injury to an Old Blue - we wish him a speedy recovery.
In the 2XV King's tries were scored by
Jonny Kiddle(twice - combined yardage 5 meters), Josh Dillon(twice as well and from quite a bit further out),
Greig Blackie(miraculous inside pass from Josh),
John Walton(one of his mazy runs where neither King's or oppo knows where he's going ended up over the line,
Connor Green( at last getting the try scoring habit) and finally to add to the 6 conversions,
Neil Williams took advantage of a ridiculous bounce of the ball to dot down on the stroke of half time.
So, the end of the first half of the season for King's 2XV league games. Report so far, should do better. Capable of winning every game for the rest of the season King's will only do so if the defence is tightened up and competition for places means a strong team is fielded every week.