The last Saturday in September saw Fakenham travel to Crusaders for their London 3 fixture. The game was preceded by the first Crusaders lunch of the season, an excellent affair that was a lot more memorable than the game unfortunately.
Both sides seemed to have the same problem with unsettled sides for various reasons and it soon showed. Crusaders were dominant right from the kick off and looking dangerous in the loose although the first few minutes showed that lack of discipline and basic errors would play an important part in the game for both sides.
8 minutes into the game Crusaders gained from their early pressure on Fakenham and were awarded a relatively easy penalty to give them the lead, however the kick was errant and the score stayed level. A red card for Fakenham’s Jack Powell-Thorne for an apparent unsafe tackle should have given even more impetus to Crusaders but after a few more minutes of back and forth it was actually Fakenham who were given a penalty which they duly took, Tom Bane-Young making use of an in off the

After last week’s loss, Fakenham were hoping for a slightly better performance from this mid table Eastern Counties London 3 game. The match was played in driving rain from the start, conditions that generally provide unpredictability throughout.
Fakenham went ahead after only 2 minutes when Lloyd Marshal, who again kicked superbly all game, nudged a penalty into the corner, 5 meters out from the Thetford line. The lineout was taken by Adam Lingwood who popped it off the top to veteran scrum half Paul Richardson. His pass missed out 3 players and hit Tom Bane-Young, at pace, who broke through the defensive line and passed to Murray Tindal to score. The try was converted by Lloyd Marshal.
For the next 30 minutes Fakenham put Thetford under constant pressure but could not trouble the score board. On three occasions Fakenham were held up over the line with Rory Singleton, Rob Ward and Ashley Stewart all coming close. The Thetford defence was something to be applauded, helped by some white line fever from the home team.
Thetford eventually cleared their line with a long kick, resulting in a penalty under the Fakenham posts. Bravely, considering this was the first time they had been in the Fakenham 20m area, they