Old hands Gunning and Hall set up latest success

JOHN Gunning and Darren Hall showed what a key role experience has to play in any successful team's construction by their domination in a runaway National Conference Premier Division victory.

All East's youthful enthusiasm was there in abundance but Hall's magical performance - which produced four glorious tries - and the equally mercurial skills of Gunning were the decisive element in Saturday's win.

Woolston, though not the formidable force they were, are no pushovers. They had won their last four games and had started to climb the table. They had a star man in winger Mark Wallington, their man of the match and the scorer of their solitary try, and solid players in Chris Mellor and Jon Cole.

But they didn't have players like Robert Bowdler, David Ellison, David Radley and Michael Whiteside - and they didn't have a Gunning or a Hall.

Woolston opened the scoring in the 15th minute when scrum-half Steve Martin kicked a penalty goal but within two minutes Hall had opened East's account by scoring from a Gunning kick through.

Woolston drew level on 25 minutes with another Martin penalty but it was the last time they were to pose any threat. Gunning, Woods and Redford combined to send Radley crashing over in the corner with three defenders in tow, then prop Whiteside created the space for Hall to slice across field to score at the opposite end. Radley landed both long distance conversions for a half time score of 16-4.

Within five minutes of the restart Gunning's clever play had set up Hall's hat-trick, Radley goaling to make it 22-4. Woolston might have had a chance to recover but prop Smith was foiled by some superb defence and it was all over bar the shouting when Martin Meadows intercepted and raced over from 30 yards, Radley adding another two points.

Woolston worked hard for their 61st minute try but East were far from done.

Gunning set up two more tries - one for Mick Redford and Hall's fourth from a superbly timed interception - while Danny Kilshaw went in two minutes from time as Radley added two more goals.