Hav managed to do more than just survive in the league and finished in the top half. There was the 'icing on the cake' of a comprehensive victory over old rivals Basingstoke in the Hampshire Cup Final.
After the heartbreaking last-minute relegation from National 3 South at the very end of 2002-03, and having been promoted straight back again as champions of London 1 at the end of last season, Hav were determined, this time round, to stop the 'yo-yo' effect and survive at National level. Although most of the squad were staying, long-time favourites Dave Archer and Adie Mitchell were leaving; Dave to try for success at Division 1 Henley, and Adie to move down to the West Country; Nick Allica was returning to Australia and Matt Corker was unavailable because of University commitments. However 'Merlin' had been at it again and secured the services of several likely 1st XV players; wings Cam Avery from New Zealand and Matt Gronow all the way from Portsmouth(!); back five men Ali Ramus who had played with Henley Hawks, and Matt Harrison from New Zealand; and prop Dave Harrity who had National League experience with Harrogate. Consistency was maintained by Jon Barfoot continuing as Captain and the coaching staff remaining in position.
THE 'COME-BACK KIDS' COME BACK TO STAY
Click Here for the story of our successful campaign to 'survive' in National 3, in 3 Chapters.
A NINE YEAR WAIT BETWEEN 12 AND 13
Click Here for the short story of our Hampshire Cup triumph.
CHAPTER 1 - OVERCOMING A DIFFICULT START
|
When the fixture list came out, Hav couldn't have been given a more difficult start: away at last year's 5th placed Barking, away at 4th placed Redruth, and then home at 3rd place North Walsham. It was no surprise that after these three matches we were pointless, not even having secured one of the new bonus points. It was 16-34 at Barking, marginally better at 7-18 at Redruth and 15-24 against North Walsham, when both props had to go off with dislocated shoulders meaning the game finished with uncontested scrums. Hope for points at newly promoted from SW1 Reading were dashed when a poor defensive performance saw a fourth defeat in a row 19-31, although because of front row problems the 'mercurial' Pete Whittle, at 54, turned in a more than competent performance.
4 matches gone, Hav were on 0 points and were at the foot of the table!
The next match, at home to then unbeaten Dings Crusaders, showed what was possible, and a solid performance in 'awful' conditions saw us gain our first win, 17-10. This was followed by a close 34-31 away win at mid-table Tabard, where we did our best to 'snatch defeat from the jaws of victory'; amazingly we still hadn't scored a bonus point. We got our first in a comfortable 35-8 home win against Weston-super Mare, and then another when we made it four wins in a row with a 30-22 away win at struggling Haywards Heath.
After 8 matches we were up to 6th, although closer to 13th than we were to 5th! |
Skipper Jon Barfoot made another big contribution to Hav's successful season |
CHAPTER 2 - HAV PLAY 'YO-YO' & SHOW 'BOUNCEBACKABILITY'.
We were brought back to earth in a 'difficult' encounter at home to then league leaders Lydney and lost 16-36, having been reduced to 13 for part of the match. A poor defensive display on the 'ski-slope' of Old Patesians saw us go down 20-27 (our first point for being within 7). A sound 36-10 win over fellow promoted Hertford at Hooks Lane restored the faith, but it was immediately followed by a poor 17-29 performance at Southend. We 'bounced back' the following week by soundly beating one-place-behind-us Westcombe Park 36-12 with the 'flying kiwi' wing Cam Avery bagging a hat-trick and starting to make a mark on the league top try scoring list.
At mid way point in the season, after 13 games we were still 6th, but in a weirdly shaping up table, we were only 9 points above 13th place Hertford and 13 points behind 5th place Dings, two teams whose fortunes dramatically reversed in the second half of the season.
|
Sid Claffey finished 4th in league kickers on 170 points |
Hav continued their yo-yo performances by being soundly beaten by second from bottom Hertford 10-30 at their place, unable to capture the magic of their London 1 championship winning performance there at the end of last season and then thrashing Old Patesians 41-10 at 'The Lane'. A 7-35 reverse in the gloom at Lydney where 35-3 was another score on the day (The number of penalties the ref awarded to Lydney versus the number he awarded to Hav(?)), was followed by a not-too-convincing 33-15 victory at home against basement dwellers Haywards Heath.
After 17 matches we'd slipped to 7th, but were beginning to believe that we were going to survive; we'd established a 17 point gap to the relegation zone, which incidentally at this point contained the same three teams, in the same positions, that were to be relegated at the end of the season (Weston, Tabard and Heath)
|
CHAPTER 3 - A 'CURATE'S EGG' OF A FINISH
Still unable to turn in the performances away from home, Hav gave too much away at Weston, but managed to scrape a 25-25 draw and a bonus point for 4 tries. A 48-10, 8 try, thrashing of Tabard at 'The Lane' made us all but safe and, to celebrate, we then turned in one of our best performances of the season away at Dings with a convincing 37-8 victory that enabled us to jump over them into 5th spot, our highest point of the season. Then our home form deserted us and despite racing away to a 15-0 lead in only 11 minutes, we lost 20-29 to Reading, a team we have yet to beat in eight competitive matches! (The awful second half weather was 'memorable' if not the match).
21 matches gone and we were still 5th, but both Reading and Hertford were steaming up behind.
Another excellent away performance at promotion challenging North Walsham where a 32-17 win gave us the belief that we could be a force to be reckoned with in Nat 3 South, was followed by another good performance at home to second placed Redruth where we gave them a run for their money and narrowly lost 15-19. Run-away league leaders Barking brought us down to earth with a bump and capitalised on an inept Hav first half performance by scoring 8 tries and leading 50-0 at the break. Hav managed to salvage a little pride and made it 26-57 at the close, but it was easily enough for Barking to secure the league title. Hav managed to contrive a 35-36 defeat at Westcombe Park, despite leading 28-5 at one point, in their penultimate game, but at least finished the season with a 37-26 home win against Southend to secure a top half of the table finish.
SUMMARY
We did enough to establish ourselves at National 3 level and hopefully give ourselves a platform for starting to think about challenging for promotion within the next couple of years.
'INTERESTING' LEAGUE STATS
|
Matt Morgan, last year's FPA Player of the Season established a club league continuous starting record with 46. |
|
Cam Avery, this year's FPA player of the season is league's leading try scorer |
-
Hav's biggest league defeats were: home, 26-57 against Barking and away, 7-35 against Lydney
-
Click Here to see detailed playing programme and links to Match Reports
-
Click Here to see detailed competitive playing stats
-
Click Here to see who played where in the league
-
Click Here to see final Nat 3 South table.
-
Click Here to see the Nat 3 South Season
THE HAMPSHIRE GALE'S CUP CAMPAIGN
'Fings aint what they used to be' in the Hampshire Cup. Since the advent of the competitive leagues, the competition has very much taken a back seat. However Hav hadn't managed to take the trophy since the 1995/96 season, and for most seasons since then it was North Hampshire rivals Basingstoke who could lay claim to 'kings of Hampshire'.
Unfortunately there wasn't much competition this year! A 69-3 home win against Gosport & Fareham and a 70-0 home win against 'holders' Andover set up a final away at Basingstoke whose only match had been a 40-17 victory in the Semi-Final at Winchester.
It was no contest really, a 55-7 victory was achieved with 'more in the tank'. The Basingstoke try scored late in the game was the only try scored against Hav in the competition.
The victorious Hampshire Cup Winning squad.