'Stoke finish their league campaign with a victory

BASINGSTOKE finished their league campaign on a high with a solid win against Thanet Wanderers at Down Grange on Saturday.

The FX-backed side deserved the victory although Thanet made sure they had to work for it.

It was a good building block for the play-off game against Dings Crusaders in two weeks that will decide who will be playing national league rugby next year.

'Stoke started the better of the two teams and took the lead after four minutes with a penalty from Ian Calder. It came after a poor scrummage that was tidied up superbly by Tom Dean, who ran through several players before Thanet conceded a penalty.

Thanet then started to come into the game, led by their bigger pack. A lineout five metres out was driven over the line. The conversion was missed but the referee ordered it to be re-taken and it was successful second time around.

After 20 minutes the lead swapped hands for the last time as 'Stoke regained the advantage with a well-worked try. After winning a Thanet lineout, Jason Rees made progress down the right. The ball was spun out left and, after good link-up play, Chris Norton scored under the posts for the first of his tries. It was converted by Calder for a 10-7 lead.

Six minutes later, the lead was extended with an unconverted Tom Dean try. It came after good phases of play and resulted in Dean diving over from close range.

After 37 minutes, Thanet were given a chance to get back into the game when Steve Drawbridge was sin-binned. He was shown the yellow card for holding on but the decision seemed a bit harsh.

'Stoke, who turned round for the second half playing into the wind, couldn't have dreamed for a better start. Dean caught the long kick-off and fed Calder, who made a darting break up to the 10-metre line. From there he fed Norton, who showed great acceleration and speed to score his second try and extend the lead to 20-7.

Thanet then applied some pressure and were rewarded with a Gareth Redmond penalty to make the score 20-10.

Norton completed his hat-trick after just 14 minutes of the second half when Della-Savina chipped the Thanet defence from the halfway line and Norton ran on to a lucky bounce to score under the posts. Calder added the extra points.

Norton, Basingstoke's leading try scorer, brought his total for the season to 24, 14 of which were in the league.

'Stoke put the game beyond doubt five minutes later after Thanet had brought themselves back into the game with a penalty. But their hopes were dashed by a converted Gareth Jones try to make him the second top try scorer with 17, 13 of them in the league.

Thanet did score another try after sloppy 'Stoke defending allowed Ben Gutteridge to score wide out and this was converted well from the touchline by Redmond.

'Stoke had the final say though with the last move of the match when Neal Taylor crossed for an unconverted try wide out.

Afterwards player-coach Calder said: "It was a good win against a strong Thanet team who had plenty still to play for with relegation worries still hanging over them before the game.

"We didn't take enough opportunities, although we put enough away to still win. Tom Dean played well and Steve Drawbridge was excellent for his man-of-the-match in his last game.

"The team spirit is very high in the squad and that showed through today."

Basingstoke: C Norton; R Holmes, J Rees (rep R Joseph), N Taylor, G Jones; I Calder, T Dean; N Young, M Evans (rep A Riley), S Collins, N Hooker (rep S Appleby), S Drawbridge, P Della-Savina, R Baker (capt), M Reeve.