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SUFFOLK MERIT LEAGUE, DIVISION ONE: Haverhill 30 Stowmarket 9. Match report.

In a game that started in the sun and finished in the dark due to some inexplicable time stoppages, Haverhill’s only lapse was to give three silly penalties away 40 metres out in front of the posts, being punished for each with a conversion.

This was about as close as Stowmarket got to the Haverhill line in a game of great set and free play from Haverhill.

On three minutes, Stow found they were in for a long day when the Haverhill pack demolished the first scrum and Haverhill were soon over the line for 5-0 when a lovely flowing play saw fullback Simon Potter join the line and slip the ball wide to Dom Farnell, who reciprocated the pass to Potter for him to clear the line and touch down.

In the absence of kicker Adam Hunt for the first 20 minutes, Carl Anderson had stepped into the three quarters, so the crowd were treated to prop Dave Quinney stepping up to the tee for the conversion attempt. There were not many bets on the score increasing and we were proved right.

On ten minutes, Stow put together some good play, but never looked like breaking past the Haverhill defence.

George Foley, determined to stamp his marque onto the first team place at blind side flanker, was supreme in the defence and offence and hit the Stow inside centre so hard during this phase that the stunned player took his time getting back to his feet.

Haverhill have been working hard on the presentation of the ball in the phase and this was seen in nice rolling maul play, with Dr Alex Hieatt creating some good opportunities for Quinney, Adrian Cooper and Martin Ransome to show their skills in the unique type of play.

On 22 minutes Haverhill spilt the ball that led to a high tackle and the first three of Stow’s nine points. Haverhill replaced Anderson for Hunt at this stage, with Micky Lansdowne moving to the inside centre and Hunt the outside centre position.

On 28 minutes, Hunt was soon into the mix, with a great run at speed to pick up and break-through for a certain score, only to be penalised for being in front of the gain line and the resulting penalty allowed Stow the lead at 5-6.

Haverhill’s Tom Jury showed great skill in clearing up some loose ball from a line-out to set Lansdowne through. The pass was spilt by Hunt when the points looked on.

Stowmarket’s final sojourn into the Haverhill half resulted in the home team being penalised for not releasing the tackled player and a score of 5-9 on 34 minutes.

With the crowd asking for a score before half-time and 44 minutes on my timing, Harry Marsh, jumping at the front of the line-out and winning everything, set great ball to Jury, who spun wide to Hope.

Lansdowne intercepted at speed and made space for the blistering speed of Hunt to gather 30 metres out. With Brodie Patrick in support outside a score looked certain and Hunt crossed for 10–9, his conversion escaping to the right. The whistle finally came.

Haverhill came out aggressively at the start and some nice play between Hope, Hunt and Farnell led to a penalty, which was run.

The ball was lost, but Ransome had other ideas and turned the ball over, with Chris Flannery punching a hole into the defence to set the ball for the ever-present Paul Bergin to pick and cross the line on 42 minutes, with Hunt converting for 17-9.

On 49 minutes, a great Cooper tackle, stopping dead a Stow move resulted in a scrum. The set piece drove forward 15 metres with Jury timing the release to perfection for Hope to place the perfect pass into the path of a storming Lansdowne, who drove through five tackles on his 55-metre, try-scoring run to triumphantly place the ball down.

The conversion failed when the ball fell from the tee as Hunt started his run to kick.

The Haverhill rolling maul was now running like clockwork, with the front five gaining the hard yards with an ease that bodes well for next season.

Loose ball was quickly and skilfully picked up by Foley, leading to pressure that had Stow penalised in front of the posts for Hunt to slot the ball for 25-9 on 62 minutes.

Stow tried to attack, but Ransome had other ideas, turning the ball over again and in order to stop the play, Stow infringed and were lucky not to get a yellow card.

Two minutes later however, on what was thought to be 33 minutes, although the referee had it as 26 minutes, the yellow card was shown for another penalty infringement and the Stowmarket prop was off for a rest and it was uncontested scrums on the park.

From the resultant penalty, Haverhill crossed the line in the guise of Dr Hieatt for his first try for Haverhill and 30-9.

The final play, in darkness, happened at 4.02pm, some 17 minutes later than the kick-off would have suggested and a total of 12 unexplained minutes, to my time-keeping.