Faversham RFC 18 v 27 Hastings and Bexhill RFC

Faversham RFC 18 v 27 Hastings and Bexhill RFC
11th December 2021 2pm

Despite being behind three times Hastings and Bexhill won this game convincingly. Delays on the long journey to North Kent caused H&B to arrive late and then have a rushed warm up. Faversham fielded a squad of very big forwards with a flying winger out on the right. Hastings were missing Frazer McManus but his brother Quinn more than adequately filled the No8 shirt.

The hosts opened the scoring with a penalty; their lead was short lived as Joe Whitehall-James burst down the right wing to score a good try for Bruce Steadman to convert. Faversham hit back with an unconverted try to make the score 8-7.

Winger Jake Stinson profited from good strong work by second rower Calvin Crosby-Clarke who passed the ball out for Stinson to dance down the line to touch down in the corner.

However Faversham had a speedster of their own; and he ran three quarters of the pitch to score on the stroke of half time. The home side went into the interval 13-12 ahead.

Skipper Steadman opened the second half scoring with a well struck penalty. The two point lead was protected for a long period with some excellent defensive work from the H&B scrum. Replacements Josh Jones and Jack Mather added some extra fight to the pack as the game went on. Eventually the Faversham forwards fought their way over the line to regain the lead; but the effort required to make this score was huge and they were visibly wilting.

Centre Joe Field; one of the Hastings stars of the day, made a terrific break in the mid field and his inside partner Dan Suggitt collected the ball to cross the line from ten metres out. He touched down near to the posts to give Steadman a straight forward conversion.

Stinson rounded off a good display with his second try of the day and Hastings ran out worthy winners of a very hard game.

This excellent result and postponements for Old Williamsonsians and Park House put H&B into second place in the league. Hastings and Bexhill can now enjoy their Christmas break. They return to action at home on 15th January with a top of the table clash v Park House RFC.

Match report and photographs by Peter Knight