West Norfolk Vets Too Strong For Fakenham 1sts

West Norfolk Vets 27 Fakenham 1st 21

With West Vets’ original fixture to Sleaford cancelled skipper Nimmo jumped at the chance to play Fakenham 1st team at home.
West 3rd team are made up mostly from veteran players and with 2 narrow defeats to Fakenham 1st team the chance to put things right was too good to refuse. Indeed the only non veteran player to start was young Kyle Hinds on the wing.
Fakenham arrived with 14 players and Pete Clift volunteered by propping and therefore strengthened the visitors pack.

Fakenham won the toss and elected to receive the kick off. From this initial kick off it was evident that West Vets had more fire in their bellies and were looking for revenge for the last two encounters. The back row of Cookie, Nimmo and Julian Davis thwarted any Fakenham attempts to remove themselves from inside their own half. With the mobile front row of Moore, Turner and Fat Bob ever present in support Fakenham became sloppy and errors began to happen. West were awarded a scrum inside the visitors’ 22 and with the ball hooked and won Nimmo collected on the blind side and charged for the line, being tackled 5 yards out before popping to Julian who crossed for the first try. Al Beard converted beautifully 7 – 0 West Norfolk.

West did not relent and continued the onslaught. With the back row stealing good ball and the ever present support securing the ball scrum half Brodowski opted to attack using the remaining forwards popping from the base of each ruck. Fakenham again found themselves in disarray and it was not long before Julian was to collect the ball from Brodowski and crash over under the posts for the hosts’ 2nd try. Al Beard again converted giving West a 14 – 0 lead.
Fakenham at this point lost a player and Gareth ‘Prosthetic Legs’ Curtis volunteered to join their back row. This had a profound effect giving Fakenham a new lease of life and it appeared that both Curtis and Clift were at the forefront of Fakenhams’ attacks so much so that Clift bulldozered over for Fakenhams’ first try under the posts. 14 – 7.
Brodowski and Clarke still had full command though and commenced attacks using centers Phil Hinds and Jurgen who broke through strong tackles to make the gain line every time the opportunity arose. Davenport and Cooke were instrumental in the lineouts gathering their own ball and stealing the majority of the visitors’ ball too. With West on the rampage the visitors were found to be slowing the ball down at the rucks by not moving away. This was picked up by the ref but only when West were penalized for over enthusiastic encouragement clearing the players from the ball area. Fakenham were awarded 2 such penalties which were kicked bringing the half time score to 14 – 13.

Nimmo had internal bruising from the previous week’s battle and swapped with Tom Courtney. Reggie Dunne came on as inside centre, John Williams and Mulletio swapped propping duties, John Martin and Frenchie came on for Davenport and Stephenson.

Good use was made of the fresh legs and Reggie made a big impact as main crash ball man. This worked well given Reggie has the strength to take on defenders and stay on his feet whilst back up support arrives and clear out any Fakenham stragglers he may have left standing. Again Brodowski could do as he pleased and Darren Clarke broke through on the half way line only to be stopped short of the visitors try line, but the ever present Brodowski collected the off load and sailed over for Wests’ Third try in the corner. Al failed to convert. 19 – 13
Frenchy and Martin worked tirelessly in the engine room and Frenchy was seen several times throwing himself upon the opponents whether they had the ball or not. This worked well and had the desired effect resulting in Fakenham retaliating and a penalty awarded to West which Al kicked. 22 – 13.
With West having the majority of attacking possession and the upper hand in the scrums and lineouts it was inevitable that a try was on the cards and Simon Cooke was rewarded with a fine individual try in the corner. Al missed the conversion. 27 – 13.

Gareth ‘Prosthetic Legs’ Curtis sustained a minor neck injury whilst playing for Fakenham and Davenport insisted he would be the one to assist the visitors in the last 10 minutes. This unsettled West and during one of Davenports’ ‘nuisance’ moments West were penalized for handling on the floor or something. Fakenham kicked the penalty bringing the score to 27 – 16.

Fakenham had found a new energy and a sustained attack saw the visitors’ centre bag a much deserved try which went unconverted. 27 – 21.

With 2 minutes on the clock and Davenport imitating a ‘Whirling Dervish’ West found themselves defending within their own 22. The support from the sideline spurred the veterans on and during Fakenhams’ final attack fierce rucking from Frenchie, Martin and Mulletio resulted in the ball being turned over for Brodowski to clear and give West a much deserved victory.

Super game and great win!!