On a gloriously sunny day by the seaside, Chinnor's Powergen Cup run was dashed by a more organised and powerful Barnstaple side, going down 26 - 15.

The first half for Chinnor was something of a nightmare. Continual infringements led to a series of well kicked penalties by Barnstaple's centre Clark. Barnstaple kept to a simple game plan: when the ball was in their half, their kicking duo of Chugg and Clark got to work. With the ball in the Chinnor half, they attacked centre field with their big forwards or the crash ball from their backs. It was effective, and the pressure on the Chinnor defence eventually told with two Barnstaple tries and conversions. Begley for Chinnor eventually got Chinnor on the score board with the last kick of the first half, to go in 23 - 3 down.

Chinnor started the second half much more brightly and got close to the Barnstaple line right from the start. Good defence kept the Oxfordshire side out but Chinnor now started to get more ball and showed in glimpses what they could do. On several occasions, a tight close passing move saw good territorial gain but without scoring. The penalty count continued to rise but shared more equally. Unfortunately, Begley missed several penalty kicks but a move from Kruger, playing at fullback, selling a huge dummy, brought a Chinnor try scored by Serdyn. Chinnor continued to attack as the match faded, scoring a pack driven try under the posts, Marr touching down and Begley converting.

Chinnor were clearly not at the races in the first half and their lineout failed to win more than a couple of throws during the whole match. Barnstaple were quicker to release the ball and their superior efforts of the first half won the tie for them. However, Chinnor will be cheered by their second half performance and surely their lineout can only improve.

Team: Matthews, Whelan, Winpenny, Borgnis, Serdyn, Fincken, Cook M, Hennessy, Deeley, Phillips R, Oxley, Brooks (c), Begley, Cook D, Kruger.
Replacements: Jackson, Marr, Cawston, Davies G

Chinnor 17 vs. Bridgewater & Albion 11
Sat 14th September 2002
SW Division One League

The first league match of the season against Bridgewater and Albion provided Chinnor with an opportunity to show off its new club house for the first time.

Berry Hill 0 vs. Chinnor 15
Saturday 5th October 2002
Powergen SW Division One League

Chinnor Rugby Club had one of their finest days on Saturday with a superb 15 – 0 away win at Berry Hill. In what ended in an ill tempered finale, the Gloucestershire side lost their 18 month unbeaten home record to a Chinnor side that boasted great performances from 1 – 18 but were inspired by their winger Charlie Oyebade.

Oyebade created havoc in the Berry Hill defence every time he touched the ball and was rewarded with the final try to silence a hostile Berry Hill crowd. Chinnor started well from the first whistle with fine driving runs from Du Toit Serdyn, Mike Cook and Paul Hennessy and after solid pressure, Serdyn crashed over following good interplay between backs and forwards. Chinnor kept up the pressure throughout the first half but could not capitalise on the pressure and turned around 5 – 0 to the good.

In the period at the end of the first half and in the beginning of the second half, Chinnor played with 14 men following the sin binning of Simon Matthews for, given what was to follow, a fairly innocuous challenge. During this period, the young front row of Joe Winpenny, Dave Goddard and Tom Whelan (total age 62) rose to the challenge and kept up the pressure on Berry Hill. There then followed a brawl following a stamping incident on Oyebade that led to two Chinnor players having to receive treatment for facial cuts. From the resultant penalty, Chinnor extended their lead to 8 – 0.

The scoring was rounded off by Oyebade with a 50 metre run but the game ended in another brawl as the Berry Hill side and crowd seemed to find it hard to come to terms with the fact that they had been comprehensively outplayed.

Chinnor 46 vs. Truro 5
Saturday 2nd November October 2002
Powergen SW Division One League

Chinnor's prospects looked as bleak as Saturday's weather when their pack hurtled backwards at the first set scrum and Truro No 8 Simon Griffiths scored the easiest of tries after six minutes.

Chinnor's Arnoldus Du Toit Serdyn wins a lineout

But the home fowards turned the game - and possibly Chinnor's season - around in remarkable style to set up a surprisingly easy victory in their Powergen South West 1 match at Kingsey Road. Before the game, Chinnor coach Lynn Evans stressed the importance of this game, following an uncertain start to the season. But his depleted and young side came up trumps in the wind and the rain.

With experienced loose head Simon Matthews taking the sting out of the Truro front row, and James Bornis and Arnoldus Du Toit Serdyn dominating the line-outs, Chinnor controlled the rest of the game.  The match was also a personal triumph for fly half Conor Begley, with a personal tally of 26 points, while Ger Phillips controlled matters at scrum half.

It was Begley's well-placed kick to the corner that set up Charlie Oyebade's equalising try, and the fly half added three penalties to put Chinnor 14-5 ahead at the break. Truro, never the best of travellers, appeared to give up the ghost in the second half as their cumbersome pack was moved around the field. After two more Begley penalties, Chinnor kept up the pressure and scored four tries in the last quarter, three of which Begley converted.Flanker Nick Marr charged over from close range, before Begley himself darted through a half-gap to touch down.Marr's break put replacement winger Tom Wood in at the left corner, before Oyebade capped it all with an elusive try, following good work by centre Darren Oxley.

Suddenly, Chinnor's prospects seem sunnier!

Chinnor: Cawston, Clarke, Oxley, Kruger (Wood 62), Oyebade, Begley, Phillips, Matthews, Goddard (Whelan 62), Winpenny, Du Toit Serdyn, Borgnis, Marr, Seymour, Fincken (Hennessy 50).
Truro: Coombes, Rowe, Caruana, Enoch (Rowe 46), Brandham, Pollard, Craven, Prynn (Sharp 78), Gay, Bilkey, Yelland, Osbourne, Robins (Penaluna 27), Allen, Griffiths.
Referee: A Thomas (Berks).

Chinnor 37 vs. Berry Hill 7
Saturday 1st February 2003
Powergen SW Division One League

Classy Chinnor ease relegation worries
by Michael Knox

INSPIRED by the brilliant displays of two young flankers, Chinnor surged clear of the South West 1 relegation zone with a comprehensive victory over fellow strugglers Berry Hill at Kingsey Road on Saturday.

Actually, Chinnor should struggle no more after this result which lifts them two places to fourth from bottom. With four of their last six games at home, they should escape the drop with ease. The encouraging aspect for Chinnor was the relative youth of their side, highlighted by flankers David Seymour and Tom Johnson, both of whom scored tries.

The 18-year-old Seymour, a product of the club's thriving mini-rugby section and son of former prop Cec, opened the scoring after ten minutes following a drive by the pack. A few minutes later, a great individual try by Louw Kruger increased their advantage. The fly half caught his own chip ahead and went over wide out.

Chinnor's domination of the mauls kept the pressure on their cumbersome, one-dismensional opponents, who conceded a penalty and a penalty try as they came under the cosh. Conor Begley did the honours with the boot to put Chinnor 20-0 ahead after 26 minutes. Berry Hill, whose attacking ideas were limited to giving the ball to one of their big forwards, were awarded a penalty try of their own following a series of Chinnor infringements close to their line. Ex-Gloucester fly half Lee Osborne added the conversion.

But their hopes of a revival were dashed just before half-time with a superbly-worked home try. Kruger switched the direction of an attack, and the pacy Johnson, a 20-year-old Oxford Brookes student, sped over the line without being touched. Begley kicked the conversion and then added a penalty to give Chinnor a match-winning 30-7 half-time lead.

The second half was a scappy affair as Berry Hill sought to salvage some pride with a series of attacks which Chinnor repelled, thanks to some sterling defence by hooker Tom Whelan, before he left the field injured. It looked as though there would be no more scoring, but in injury time, the referee awarded his third penalty try of the game - this time to Chinnor - following further infringements close to the Berry Hill line.

Begley converted to take his tally to 12 points and seal an important victory.

Chinnor: Cawston, Simpson (Winpenny 50-58), Oxley, David, Begley, Kruger, Phillips, Matthews, Whelan (Winpenny 58), Harris, Borgnis, Nel, Johnson, Seymour, Hennessy (Fincken 71).