Ventnor entertained unbeaten Overton last Saturday at Watcombe Bottom. Straight from the kick off Overton had a player sin binned for foul play.
Ventnor immediately went on the attack and were awarded a scrum 5 meters from the Overton line from which Todd Riches crashed over.
Then in an astonishing 10-minute period Ventnor played some delightful rugby. From the resulting kick off after Ventnor’s first try Fergus Kenny made a crunching tackle on an Overton forward, stole the ball and fed Riches, who expertly drew a defender before feeding Harris, who offloaded quickly to Babington, to allow him to race past the cover defence to score a fantastic try in the corner. Two further tries then came in quick succession for the gifted Babington.
Overton had no answer to Ventnor’s flowing rugby and after another excellent passage of play, where the forwards retained possession, Cooper weaved his way over for Ventnor’s 5th try. Cooper converted. With 10 minutes remaining of the first half, Ross Harris breached the Overton defence and scored, Cooper, converted the try.
Overton then resorted to niggling scuffles to break up Ventnor’s dominance. This tactic worked briefly and Overton managed to score two tries just before the interval.
The second half was much more fragmented with Overton continuing their spoiling tactics and with Ventnor losing Riches to the sin bin midway through the half.
Even with a man down, Ventnor still looked comfortable and when Riches returned to the fray, he rounded off a fine display by scoring with the last play of the game. Ventnor’s AJ Wells man of the match was James Morley.
The club would like to thank Ventnor Bathrooms and Mark Cufflin Ltd for sponsoring the match. Ventnor’s next fixture is away to Lymington Mariners on Saturday 3rd November.