Rugby
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Spiers gets top performance
Vigo 45-0 Old Hamptonians XV
TO honour Tony Spiers, Vigo played touring Old Hamptonians and suitably gave their President a convincing win.
Notwithstanding the fact the visitors were below strength and suffering from the travails besetting a touring side, Vigo displayed a fluency of passing and movement so sadly lacking against Cranbrook.
Against a side two divisions above them, Vigo were soon on the attack.
Suffering from the previous night's carousing, the Old Boys were immediately on the back foot and Luke Spiers danced through a leaden-footed defence to score the opening try, converted by James Weller.
Man of the match Rob Hayes added a further score within minutes after a counter attack from deep.
Visiting captain Jamie Gidlow began to rouse his troops with some meaty charges and tackles as Vigo, relaxed and confident, buzzed around the field before a good crowd.
Spiers and Hayes then repeated the dose with a try apiece, both converted by Weller, to give Vigo a convincing lead at half time.
Vigo took the opportunity of making a raft of changes and this, allied with the visitors gradually working off the previous night's excesses, saw the scoring rate decrease.
Tom Emmitt added a try, Weller converting, before Weller himself wrapped up proceedings with a brace of tries.
The kicking duties fell to prop Pete Hayward, who to everyone's amusement, managed to convert the final try.
As a curtain raiser to the main fare, Vigo's under-14s hosted Ashford and a ding-dong battle, with plenty of good rugby and no less commitment by both sides, entertained the large crowd.
Vigo conceded a try in the first minute, but fought back against a bigger pack and showed great promise with some encouragingly quick recycling of the ball and good ball skills.
This swift recycling allowed Vigo's Jack Elsey room to level the scores.
Once again, however, Vigo lost the ball in contact and neat passing in the visitors' back line saw wing Michael Kersley score a fine individual try, converted by the excellent Charlie Colman.
Strong running by centre Ollie Stringer and a high work rate by flanker Nick Haigh for the villagers kept the score within bounds as Ashford strove to widen the gap.
Vigo, driven forward by some intelligent scrum half play by Dominic Carslaw, started to gain a foothold in Ashford territory, but thumping tackles and diligent cover defence by the visitors looked to have secured the win.
Ben Brockwell and Luke Hancock ensured a steady stream of ball for Ashford, but Vigo scrapped for every morsel and were duly rewarded with a late try by the promising, and decidedly quick, Kieron Waller.
George Luck's kick from the touch line to tie the match was agonisingly short and thus Ashford celebrated
3:12pm Tuesday 22nd April 2008
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