London Cornish continued their steady climb up the London 2 South-West table with this comprehensive defeat of bottom side Bognor, on a stellar day when the club overcame a lengthy injury list to see all 4 sides gain big wins. This win, by 5 goals, 3 tries and a penalty to 3 goals, moves the exiles up to 5th place in the table, and gives them a positive points difference for the first time this season.

The good news was that loosehead Mike Bond, open side Chris Turner and no 8 Andrew McEwen were all back in action, but there were a few key areas that saw significant changes. With all 3 1s squad hookers injured, Cornish had to recall Club Treasurer Alex Harris from his sojourn in the Dukes, though only a lack of training had prevented this talented player from adding to his many 1s starts as it was only 2 seasons ago that he was a 1s regular. Cornish also went into the game with problems at 9, both 1s squad 9s also currently injured, so Graeme Smeaton was asked to fill the shirt, him being a talented all round footballer. With fly half Rich McKeown out until the Xmas break with a hamstring tear, 2s Skipper John Barker was recalled in the pivot role, though this too was not such a gamble as Barker is a key part of the brains trust at the club and a future coaching role surely awaits. Vitally, Cornish had been able to run a full training session midweek with all the constituent parts in place and this was to prove evident from the start of the match.

Bognor arrived in indifferent form, them also having suffered injuries during the season preventing them from being able to gain any fluency in their play. They brought great support for a club propping up the table and will have been heartened to find the pitch at the REMPF surely the best in the league, in absolutely perfect condition.

Cornish elected to play towards the clubhouse in the opening half, and it didn’t take long to see that this could be a high scoring match. On 2 minutes, and with the first real attack of note, a Nick Harlock counter attack down the right wing was recycled right to left for Barker to hit a great line onto the Bognor 22 and send the Bude flyer Stefan Duda into space outside his man to cross wide left and run round under the posts for a score converted by his fly half. Bognor struck back quickly, turning Cornish over in the exiles 22 before recycling blind for one of their locks to crash over wide right, the score converted by their 10. On 12 minutes the visitors were caught offside defending in their own 22, Barker driving a decent kick between the uprights to regain his side the lead from wide right. Three minutes later the lead was extended further. A Mark Osei-Tutu charge drove play to the 10 metre line in his own half before Chris Turner hit Harlock arriving at pace down the right wing. The full back stepped the first line defense and simply sprinted away from the cover to register his 8th try of the season in 8 league games, him having now scored in 7 consecutive league matches, Barker also converting this one. On 19 minutes it was Harlock again from a counter, winning a penalty a little wider out for offside, but this attempt flew narrowly wide of the right upright. On 21, and with Cornish completely dominant, a fine set play in midfield saw Barker link with Keith and then Harlock again, but just as the latter offloaded for the scoring pass he was pinged for holding as he hit the deck. Not to be denied and in irresistible form, on 24 minutes Harlock was again at the centre of the action, chipping and regathering the defensive line on half way after a snipe blind from Smeaton, before drawing the full back and sending right wing Stuart Bell away on a clear run to the line, this conversion a tougher one but still made to make the score 24-7. Both sides were struggling to work with the referee at the engage, and Bognor can consider themselves unfortunate on 31 minutes for they were pinged for an early engage and then marched back and conceded a full penalty when they enquired as to the reason – Cornish kicked the penalty to the 22 and simply marched the Sussex side back over their line from some way out, no 8 Andrew McEwen the beneficiary and the bonus point already secured, though this conversion flew left of the posts. 3 minutes later and the Bognor side were back under their posts, Bond intercepting a loose pass and sending Keith down the narrow side to link with Harlock and finally Osei-Tutu, him thundering through a tackle and away from the cover to cross for a try wide right, this conversion hitting the bar but dropping the wrong side, the score now 34-7. On 34 minutes a Bognor lock was injured and replaced following a chip in behind from their 10, which was scrambled into touch by Bell. Not learning from their earlier error, Cornish again conceded a penalty when trying to complicate things in their own 22 on 36 minutes, and this penalty was kicked to the corner where Bognor set their maul, but they worked a cunning move to free up a back row who burst away from the maul and crashed across the line, another decent kick converting the score, which was 34-14 at the break.

An early counter by the visitors in the opening minute of the second half very nearly resulted in an interception by Duda, but the ball was agonizingly knocked on with no one home. With Barker arrowing impressive clearance kicks up both flanks, Cornish were forcing their opponents to attack from deep. On 45 the exiles added to their lead, Osei-Tutu and McEwen linking to send Keith into space, and then Smeaton hitting Harris to tiptoe down the right flank before his inside ball found Bell arriving on a great line to touch down right side, the kick flying just wide of the right post and the Bognor 10 now injured and replaced, him having taken a heavy toll in trying to stop the rampaging Osei-Tutu. With lock Pete Calvert claiming every restart and compatriot in the row Phil Ridsdale doing similar at lineout time, Bognor were in danger of being badly flayed at this point, and it is to their real credit that they kept the score down. On 49 Barker angled a perfectly weighted kick right to left from inside his own half for Duda to collect, step the full back and offload to supporting open side Chris Turner, who though hit by a cover tackle, carried his assailant across with him to plunge across the try line for a score just to the left of the posts, Barker converting to stretch the lead out to 46-14. The Sussex side now had to use their final replacement now as one of their back row was injured during the previous passage of play. Now the visitors upped their game, and worked their way into the Cornish 22 only for Harris to win a penalty for holding, him so expert at doing exactly that. Cornish countered again on 53, Smeaton finding Bell down the right wing only for him to be pushed into touch by the final covering defender. On 54 a Cornish lineout just outside the Bognor 22 was flapped backwards by the visiting pack only for Harris to be the quickest to react, him darting through a gap and then offloading to the bullocking Surrey county lock Calvert to crash over for another converted try, the score out to 53-14. Cornish made a change now, withdrawing Ridsdale for Tom Stock in the row. Just after the hour mark, Bognor demonstrated that they have some talented runners in their back line, their 2 centres combining well before an inside pass saw one of their back line step away from the cover and score just to the right of the posts despite a fine covering tackle from Duda, the conversion made and the visitors in sight of a bonus point try. The exiles replaced Bell with the returning Robin Heymann on the right wing at this point. Calvert was again quickest to react at the restart, and he drove on all the way under the posts only for the ball to deemed to be held up and the attack repelled at the scrum. Bognor sensed a chance of a bonus point now, and bayed on by their decent support began to run from everywhere, though this may not have pleased some of the more experienced members of their pack who began to go down with cramp! Cornish brought on Gregg Quixley for Bond now, and despite the best efforts of Skipper Dave Theobald to raise his side for a final effort, repeated scrums deep in Bognor territory were reset or lost to technical infringements. Both sides had run themselves to a standstill and it was no surprise the remaining minutes became scrappy, centre Phil Francis crashing close on 75 minutes and Bognor also countering with some success down the right wing before the ball was scrambled into touch. When the final whistle went, two tired teams raised the 3 cheers.

This has been a harrowing opening 10 games for Bognor, and the injuries they suffered on the day were a familiar tale by all accounts. It was a shame their team did not come back to The Telegraph, but their committee did and were good value too – we look forward to seeing you in March and hope that the knocks do not turn out to be too serious. Cornish gain the 5 points they were after, and with a few more players returning to the fray each week, can be happy not to have added any more injuries of their own during this match. The side moves into the top half of the table, but every match is a battle in this division so training will need to remain of high standard to continue the climb.