Men’s 1st XV v Old Elthamians 01/10/2005

Home – London 4 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 24-10

This top of the table clash was Hove’s first home League adventure of the season and was awaited with great anticipation by the assembled throng. The pre match conviviality as always laid on by Hove saw many a verbal joust as to who would prevail this day.

The match started with Old Elthamians scoring a penalty after a brief two minutes which galvanised (woke up the somnolent and soporific) Hove into a more precipitate endeavour. Hove’s initial reply was a decisive single handed try from Adam Phillips after 9 mins to take the score to 5-3.

A further penalty by Adam extended Hove’s lead to 8-3 after 12 mins. Hove were now rocking, although the tendency by the opposition to punch was becoming all too reminiscent of the last two week’s fixtures and it is tiresome to see this type of activity occur and even more tiresome to see little action by the referee.

Old Elthamians not to be outdone scored a ‘dour’ forward try by the posts which was converted to take the half-time score to 8-10 in favour of the away side. By this time, the referee had little choice but to create more space on the field and this he chose to achieve by filling the sin bins with a player from each side.

The second half started and the referee doubled the occupancy of the OE sin bin by rightly popping Rocky Marciano (no. 4) in there to give the Hove players at least 10 minutes without the attention of recent pugilism. Hove jumped out of the second half blocks more swiftly and scored an excellent try via the blinding running of Tom LeMehaute (the man from Del Monte!), 13-10 to Hove.

Not to be outdone, Adam Phillips converted a penalty after 50 mins taking the score to 16-10. Tom LeMehaute raced to touch down in the corner against three Old Elthamian defenders. Taking the score after 57 mins to 21-10. Adam Phillips again decided that he would have the last word and scored the last points of the match via another penalty. Full time 24-10 to Hove who march-off to Bromley next week. Come on boys do not keep letting it be a Tom and Adam show.