James Morley shares this latest report from Ventnor FRC. Ed
Ventnor 1st XV 24-15 Sandown and Shanklin 1st XV
On a beautiful sunny afternoon at Watcombe bottom, Ventnor took on Sandown and Shanklin in the final derby game of the season. With Ventnor not having won a derby match, they were determined to get a result.
The game started at very intense pace with some hard hits going in from the start with Sandown taking the ascendancy and putting the pressure onto Ventnor. Ventnor put a big defensive effort in on their own line and managed to hold Sandown up over the line. Sandown still had the pressure on and with some good hands they managed to get an overlap and score in the corner and kicked the conversion.
Minutes later Sandown got another penalty and slotted it to make the score 10-0 to the visitors.
Ventnor eventually had some front foot ball just before half time and got a penalty on the Sandown five metre line after some good pressure from the forwards. Sam Lines had ideas of his own and took the penalty quick and scored to get Ventnor on the board. Todd Riches kicked the conversion to make the score 10-7 and give Ventnor some belief going into the second half.
Second half
Ventnor kicked off to get the second half and almost immediately found themselves on the front foot and with Sam Lines ruling the roost at ten, he put in an audacious chip over on the Sandown 22 which Jake Babington gathered and dotted down over the line to take the lead and Todd Riches slotted the kick to make the score 14-10.
The next 20 minutes were crucial to Ventnor to not concede any points and found themselves in and around there own half soaking up a lot of pressure being put on by Sandown. With a big effort from the front five in the endless amount off scrums and the back row around the breakdown Ventnor did find themselves with attacking ball and won a penalty just inside the Sandown half which Riches sweetly kicked to make it 17-10 to the home team.
With about 15 minutes left of the game came the moment that gave Ventnor the belief that the win could be theirs, in the form of Babington who again picked up a loose ball in his own 22 and with Sandown in pursuit he set of for the try line. As he was getting closer metre by metre, the crowd were getting louder and when he finally put the ball down over the line the crowd went mental, Riches again stepped up and slotted the kick to make it 24-10.
Ventnor knew they were in for a big defensive effort in the last 15 minutes of the game and they stepped up to the plate with Sandown chucking everything at them they still managed to keep Sandown out until the last minute when one of their big ball carriers finally broke the Ventnor line unfortunately Sandown missed the kick which made the final score 24-15 to Ventnor.
Thanks
A massive thank you from the players must go out to the coaches Damien and Chris and a massive thank you to everyone that turned up at Watcombe Bottom to watch an epic encounter between to quality teams.
Thank you to team sponsors AJ Wells & Sons and Ventnor Haven Fishery.
Thank you to match sponsors Whitwell Garage, Simon Rodley, Ventnor Rotary, Ventnor Winter Gardens and Quarr Abbey Farm and Tea Shop.
AJ Wells & Sons Man of the Match: Sam Pickard for another amazing game in the back row.
Ventnor Haven Fishery Cod eye of the day: Ben Savill for putting his body on the line for the team and getting the ball from about 2 metres away kick straight into his face!
Ventnor Squad: Price, Jones, Pratt, Morley, Savill, Berry, Pickard, Riches, Clarke, Lines, Blow, Dobbas, Babington, Roberts, Harris, Gilbert, Turner, Petifer
Image: sjbresnahan under CC BY 2.0
