Chinnor were under the cosh in the final quarter at the Princes Stadium on Saturday and only a strong defence well marshalled by Darren Oxley and Matt Buckley kept Cheltenham at bay. The home side were playing with an authority which belied their position of propping up the league and with a surfeit of possession they mounted wave after wave of attacks at the Chinnor line. The visitor's cause was not helped with their line-out hardly functioning during this period along with being one short with Henry Gurney in the sin-bin having been adjudged to have played the ball on the ground whilst off his feet.

Notwithstanding  that this was a case of mistaken identity it still meant that Chinnor were down to 14 at this crucial stage. Chinnor took the field, which was well sanded due to heavy rain, with Jon Brooks , Club Captain, playing in the unfamiliar No.8 position. He adapted well to this new role an indeed was adjudged man of the match. With Paul Hennessy and Mike Cook also absent Henry Gurney had his first start for the Club. Chinnor took the lead with a well struck penalty from James Hewitt. This was soon cancelled out when Mudway replied in kind for Cheltenham. The referee then awarded a penalty try to Chinnor when Cheltenham collapsed the Chinnor scrum which was in the process of going over the line. Cheltenham came back once again when they scored via a well executed driving maul. Then came the try of the match when Chinnor moved the ball from well inside their own half. Sam Soane burst through the middle before throwing a well judged long pass for the supporting Eric Brown to touch down. It was all Chinnor at this stage and when Rewi Tolich scored from a text-book move from the back of the scrum with Brooks, Burns and Soane all involved Chinnor were 14points up at the interval.

Cheltenham started the second half with all guns blazing and with Mudway kicking a penalty, scoring a try and adding the conversion it was most certainly game-on. However Chinnor bounced back with Brooks picking up from the back of a scrum to force himself over the line. Another  conversion from Hewitt stressed the importance of having a consistent goal kicker in the side as this once again put Chinnor two scores in front. The rest of the game belonged to Cheltenham but they were unable to breach the Chinnor defence.