Farnham U16s claim Beech Cup in Camberley win
FOLLOWING last week’s U16s’ first team being crowned Surrey county champions, the Farnham U16s second team won the Surrey RFU Beech Cup with a 12-7 win over Camberley.
At Esher, Camberley took a very physical game into Farnham’s half and stayed there. Using their strong players, Camberley battered against a calm and solid black and white defence.
When Farnham gained possession, it was not long before Camberley’s bigger forwards turned possession over at the breakdown. Eventually the battering told and Camberley went over under the posts. The conversion was successful and Camberley led 7-0.
Attacking at pace and always looking for gaps, Farnham edged into the opposition half. Farnham capitalised on their numerous infractions by a frustrated Camberley defence and hoofed the ball up the touchline.
From an attacking lineout, the forwards drove to the five-metre line before the ball was spun wide to allow Farnham’s fast and accurate backs to put Malakhi Samuels over in the corner. Austin Humphries missed the conversion, and the game was poised at 7-5 at half-time.
Their score came from a slick move straight off the training ground. A solid scrum followed by quick recycling of the ball at the breakdown set up the play.
The Camberley defence was wrong-footed by a dummy pass to the forwards for the crash ball. Instead, the ball was popped to Ethan Payne who came off his wing as first receiver. He passed to full-back Sam Marsh, who hit the gain line at pace and put winger Jacob Fleet into space for the try out wide.
Humphries converted a difficult chance and Farnham had the lead at 12-7.
Camberley came back at Farnham, but the defence held strong until the final whistle blew and Farnham were crowned champions.
The Farnham Flames, Farnham’s U13s girls side, were in action in the Surrey Waterfall Cup Finals at Old Reigatian where 12 U13s girls teams competed.
The Flames faced Wimbledon in the Plate Final and got off to the perfect start when Mimi McArthur was on the end of a great passing move to open Farnham’s account.
Back came Wimbledon‘s powerful pack though with two tries before McArthur scored again to level the match. Tries from Annie Hopper and Chelsey Parker kept Farnham in the hunt in the second half, but two late tries for Wimbledon saw them win by six tries to four.