Farnham 3 Richmond 30 Richmond pretty well ensured their promotion from London south west 4 division on Saturday with a hard earned win over Farnham at a testing Wrecclesham ground in one of the more depressing games one is likely to encounter, writes Ted Brown.

On a difficult and in places boggy pitch, which sloped from one side to the other, many standard features of the game such as running straight at pace were fraught with hazard. Even good old kick and rush was out of the question, the kick was possible, but the rush - no chance.

Hence Farnham concentrated their efforts on kicking the ball out of play. One downside of this was the length of time it took to retrieve the ball from a lower level and once it finished in a private garden and never was recovered. Coarse rugby is still alive and well.

Richmond, for their part, kicked long, often keeping the ball in play. Whether by accident or design, it worked, as Farnham had difficulty turning to run back to recover. From a position so established 20 metres out, Tigger Woods opened the scoring, putting the final touch to a break away by Ross Evans with Sean Flynn and Chris Whiteley contributing usefully. Jim Samuel's conversion was successful.

Not for the first time, Andy Cuthbert had a try not given by an unsighted referee when driven over from a lineout, but the injustice was soon rectified when, from a similar move, the indomitable Dom Little was able to touch down to official satisfaction.

Full back Ben Leigh then found space to take play forward some 30 metres and put in a delicate kick for Mike McSweeney to run on to, but the ball dribbled into touch as the little winger was sucked into the mire. However, a Samuel penalty saw the visitors to a 15-0 half-time lead.

To the delight of their numerous spectators, the home side began to drive Richmond back with a series of rolling mauls after the break and their pressure was rewarded when fly half Simon Lewis kicked a penalty goal from 30 metres. But further pressure was resisted. Three times Farnham had scrums five metres out and three times Richmond held firm, the pack an immovable object. There was an eerie stillness at the final scrum before the ball squirted out, Woods half cleared and Farnham were never again serious contenders.

For the last 20 minutes at the drier end, Richmond slowly took charge. The persevering Evans made a half-break and the ball was spread wide to McSweeney whose flick up was grasped by lock Mike Hull to crash over.

McSweeney himself, having found firmer ground, scored twice towards the end, the first following an inch perfect chip ahead by Whiteley and the second taking a wide pass from Ollie Quigley to outflank the defence.

Team: Leigh (Brown), McSweeney, Whiteley, Quigley, Samuel, Flynn, Woods, Lodder (Allhusen), Cuthbert (c), Little, Hull, Head, Phillips, Lyles (Bolton), Evans.