Brilliant Basil brushes off Caldy challenge

BASIL STRANG’S secondhalf try saw a revived Esher cruise to victory over Caldy at Molesey Road.

Caldy took the lead into half-time, but three tries in 10 second-half minutes put Esher in control of the match, and their league survival.

Esher hit hard early, and were rewarded after three minutes as Caldy’s failure to release gave Strang his first penalty kick.

But Karl Furey’s sin-bin three minutes later for slapping Edward Stagg gave Esher an uphill battle, and Caldy took the lead immediately, Rhys Hayes side-stepping to score from a scrum.

Strang then kicked a penalty on 18 minutes, before his drive through Caldy ten minutes later put Billy Harding in to finish.

But an error gave Caldy the lead at half-time, Harrison Crowe picking up a loose ball for Mark Dixon to finish the counter-attack.

The home side came out firing, breaking though five minutes in as Strang smashed over the line, before Harrison Collins scored four minutes later.

The hammer blow wasn’t over, and Charlie Gossington sneaked under to score on 55 minutes.

Caldy’s Josiah Dickinson capitalised on poor Esher defending seven minutes later, before their own sloppy throw put Cameron Zeiss through.

John Parker found a way to score for Caldy but, with five minutes to go and a penalty kick by Paul Roberts, it was not enough.