London Cornish produced their most comprehensive performance of the season to move up to 4th place in the London 2 South-West table, on a day when all four of the clubs sides won to cement their respective places in the top 4 of each of their respective divisions. The exiles shut out their hosts Teddington at their Bushy Park home, scoring 2 goals, 2 tries and a penalty to secure their second bonus point win of 2012.

The Teddington pitch is tucked away in a corner of Bushy Park just over the river from Kingston. With parking inside the park not allowed, visitors have to head to a car park on the other side of the park wall. This gives the club something of a detached feeling, as the ground is not easily found. A tiny wooden clubhouse is barely big enough to house showers, 4 changing rooms and a bar, but this has not prevented this ambitious club from stampeding through 3 leagues in consecutive seasons and carrying off both the Junior and Senior Vases in heady afternoons at Twickenham to boot. Plans are afoot to build a new clubhouse, and we can only endorse the fundraising attempts, which launch in earnest in April. Like Cornish, the hosts have suffered a huge injury list during the season, and as a result they have found this step up a rude awakening, languishing just above the relegation places prior to this match.

The exiles were forced into 4 changes from the side successful the previous week, requiring changes at lock, no 8, scrum half and wing. The first of these changes was forced on Cornish 10 minutes prior to the meet time, requiring a hasty reshuffle made none the easier by the 2s already being well on their way to Hove! Fortunately, Nick Fletcher, originally selected to play for the 2s, had requested a local match due to an evening commitment so was able to answer the call having been moved to the Choughs for their home game. Also in came Dave Hill, Andrew Preston and Phil Francis, with hooker Will Carew-Gibbs taking the 9 shirt for the afternoon.

An unseasonably beautiful, still, sunny day greeted the sides, on a decent pitch with a sizeable slope away from the clubhouse end, Cornish playing down the slope in the opening half. It took 7 minutes for the visitors to take the lead, a rolling maul collapsed and centre Luke Spells knocking over a penalty from out in front of the posts. With Carew-Gibbs and fellow stand in Graeme Smeaton performing decent impressions of real half-backs, kicks were launched in behind the up and in defence of the Teddington back line, and though the home 10 countered with decent kicks of his own, the early territory was with Cornish, buoyed as ever by an utterly dominant scrummaging performance. On 13 minutes Teddington had their first set piece in an attacking position, but hooker George Johnson, playing in front of his family who had driven up from their home on the Helford Passage in Gods Country, took the first of many strikes on the day against the head for the ball to be cleared by Smeaton. Gradually, Cornish began to take control of the game, coruscating runs by no 8 Mark Osei-Tutu driving his side deep into home territory. On 18 minutes the visitors worked room for wing Stuart Bell down the right flank, him arrowing into the 22 only for this inside pass to drift forward. Pinning their hosts down in that bottom right hand corner for a series of scrums, the referee’s patience finally snapped on 20, a home front row consigned to the bin. Teddington must have felt they had weathered the storm when they won a penalty at the ensuing scrum, but a mere 6 minutes later they were under their posts, Osei-Tutu completing what he had threatened to do from the off, clutching a loose ball on the 10 metre line, breaking a tackle and bursting away from the cover to dive over for a deserved try wide left, the conversion attempt falling short right. Hemmed in by sensible kicking from Smeaton and Carew-Gibbs, Teddington couldn’t gain any real attacking momentum and were further hampered when their tall prop was injured and replaced following a tackle on the half hour mark. Bell again went close a minute later, called back when he thought he had scored wide right for another forward pass. With plenty of carries from the likes of Hill, Skipper Dave Theobald and Johnson to support the powerful Osei-Tutu, Cornish were soon back on the attack and were rewarded on 35 minutes. Preston made the initial break and the incision was made by Ian Keith, him driving to the 22 centre field for Carew-Gibbs to hit the flying Nick Harlock, the exiles full back stepping a tackle and accelerating across the line to score his 10th try of the season, this one converted by Spells half way in from touch. When the half-time whistle sounded shortly afterward, the visitors only concern was had they scored enough points from such a dominant opening 40, them 15-0 to the good?

Cornish opened the second half with renewed vigour, Bell again in the thick of things winning a penalty for a high tackle on 43 after he had linked with Harlock up the right wing. Cornish kicked the penalty to the corner, where Pete Calvert claimed the lineout and set the maul. The home side was wise to it however, and once it was downed the ball was knocked on and cleared at the following ruck. On 48 minutes another Smeaton kick saw the home full back rushed into a clearance, Johnson again hitting his man at the resultant lineout as Hill rose high. A midfield switch saw Francis crash the ball up, and then Theobald set another maul on the 22, this one covering the entire depth of the 22 before being held up over the line. There was no denying the exiles however, for as the scrum V edged forward, Osei-Tutu picked up and smashed his way over for an unconverted try, the lead now out to 20-0. Finally, Teddington pieced together repeated attacks for the next 10 minutes or so. They won a penalty and rolled a maul up to the line only for Bell to hold them up. To the horror of the massed ranks of the home support, the Cornish front row of Mike Bond, Johnson and Theobald once again pinched the ball against the head at the scrum v, and the ball was cleared. On 60 the exiles made 2 changes, Keith withdrawn with a dead leg, Jim Reynolds coming on and Phil Francis moving from wing to his more accustomed position of centre; and Osei-Tutu having picked up a knock to knee, Alex Soskin on in his place. Continued Teddington pressure saw then twice make clean line breaks on 62 and 66 minutes, but on both occasions a final pass was called forward when it may well have been easier for the passer to score himself, this betraying a lack of confidence right across the home backline. The second of these attacks saw a visiting back binned for an offside offence, but when the hosts ran the penalty after the advantage had failed to produce the score, Harlock intercepted an inside pass and cleared the ball to halfway. With 70 gone and Cornish having survived a tough examination of their defence, Carew-Gibbs took a quick tap for a penalty awarded on halfway, Teddington not having retreated 10 before making the tackle and the subsequent penalty kicked to the left hand corner. Cornish set another maul, and after the initial burst was repelled, the follow up drove inexorably over the line, Soskin claiming the try having pinched it from Bond just as the latter was about to claim his own piece of glory! Spells produced an excellent conversion to add to the bonus point score. A final change now saw Fletcher given a run in place of Preston, and he was quickly in defensive action as another clean line break by Teddington was halted by a poor final pass. The final action of the match saw the home side work their way into the Cornish 22 only for open side Chris Turner to nick the ball on the floor, Smeaton kicking the ball clear for the final whistle to sound on a thoroughly satisfactory afternoon for his side shortly after.

These are worrying times for Teddington, their form deserting them at just the wrong time, and with other sides picking up points on the day they have now dropped into the second relegation slot. They still have to play all of the sides also still in the fight to avoid the drop, and these will now determine which division they will be in next season. A great start to 2012 for Cornish has been further enhanced by the news that their first choice 8, 9 and 10 are all ready to return to action to increase competition for places across the spine of the side. The improvement in the sides defensive solidity will be fully tested in the coming weeks, but the small steps made in the opening 2 weeks of 2012 are a good sign that the hard work in training is paying off.