Folkestone come out on top at home

London 3 South East.
Folkestone1st XV 10 Bromley 1st XV 7
Saturday \28th March 2015. [b]Report by Alex Ruddock

This was a well supported match with our guests The Bridgend Male Choir having attended the pre-match lunch boosting the crowd to over the hundred and everybody expecting another tight game between these well-matched sides.

The match in December at Bromley resulted in a last minute try and conversion for Folkestone to win ten points to eight so both teams knew it was going to be a tight match at New Burlington Field and the weather was not going to help matters with a stiff breeze blowing diagonally across the pitch and a light drizzle for most of the game.

A promising attack from inside their half on ten minutes saw a Folkestone attack down the right hand side of the field involving James Mead, Adam Tolman, Jon Morton and Thomo Murray saw full back Seyhan Fell appearing on the outside, when challenged he kicked ahead and was unfortunate to lose the sprint for the touch-down with a Bromley hand there first.
As Folkestone maintained position in the Bromley half the pressure told on Bromley with them conceding two penalties in quick succession for misdemeanours in the rucks and mauls, unfortunately Seyhan Fell kicked both slightly wide of the posts from close to either touch line.
However both sides had enterprising breaks and some good running and inter-passing by their three quarters but each break and attack broke down with some good defensive tackling by both sides. It began to look like a repeat of the match earlier in the season at Bromley when both side made errors and wasted good opportunities to score tries with some poor decisions being made.
However Bromley continued to infringe and a third penalty attempt in the 24th minute saw Seyhan Fell successful from about forty metres and slightly wide of the posts. 3-0.
Soon afterwards Folkestone had two scrums close to the Bromley try line but were unable to capitalise, being held up each time. However if you do not succeed try and try again and as half time approached from the third scrum close to the try line scrum half James Mead broke round the scrum and grounded the ball for a try about fifteen metres wide of the posts. 8-0. Seyhan Fell duly added the points for the conversion. 10-0. As a result of the scrum the Bromley tight head prop was given a yellow card with a minute to go to half time.

The second half started with both sides again encroaching each other’s territory and but for more battling defence from both sides the game see-sawed back and forth up and down the pitch with the fourteen man Bromley doing well to stem Folkestone’s attacks. As in the first half several opportunities to score went begging with overlaps and the wingers screaming for the ball to get out to them.
At this juncture the Bromley hooker was injured and had to go off the field, because their prop was still in the sin bin they did not have another front row replacement so uncontested scrums came into use. This gave some freedom to the forwards and Tom Carvill managed several storming runs and linked up with Ryan Farrow who was unlucky when he burst through several tackles to get over the try line but he was adjudged to have knocked on over the line.
At this point in the game Billy Monk came on to relieve Ben Stringer and Lewis Howland replaced try scorer and scrumhalf James Mead. while Bromley replaced their full back with number 22.
Folkestone were putting Bromley under pressure with some good attacking moves by Adam Tolman, Ollie Walton and Frankie Morgan making inroads into the Bromley 22 metre area. At this stage Bromley also infringed several times resulting in their fly half getting a yellow card. With another injury to a prop Bromley went back to uncontested scrums and worked the ball better than Folkestone at the scrummage. They were putting Folkestone’s defence under pressure and managed to score a converted try to bring the score to 10-7.
The final five minutes saw an invigorated Bromley battling to get another score to draw or win the match, fortunately Folkestone’s defence held out with desperate tackling from Chris Petley, Tom Carvill and Ryan Farrow.
This was an end to end encounter which both sides will rue their missed chances and wrong decisions. In the end good defence and some crunching tackles ruled the day.

Team: Seyhan Fell; Thomo Murray, Jon Morton, Frankie Morgan, Ollie Walton; Adam Tolman, James Mead; Martin Murray (Capt.), Alex Box, Tom Carvill; Ben Stringer, Josh Kemp; Ryan Farrow, Tim Wood, Chris Petley.
Subs: Billy Monk, Miles Dempsey, Lewis Howland.
Scorers: Seyhan Fell 3, 2; James Mead 5.