Bridgewater (Away)

Although going down to another defeat, Chinnor put in a gutsy performance, playing with a lot of passion and pride. That they were applauded off the park by a large chunk of the  home support spoke volumes for the manner in which they played. In the second half particularly they entrenched themselves for lengthy periods in Bridgewater territory, scored a well worked try, kicked a penalty and reduced the half time deficit to 7 points. Unfortunately they then ran out of steam, with the bigger Bridgewater pack taking over in the final minutes to run in two tries  with the final score line not reflecting the Chinnor performance too generously. Chinnor also started well, squandering a couple of early chances. The first one of these saw Chinnor intent on passing the ball on when the simplest option should have been someone taking the responsibility to go for the line. Bridgewater then got down the Chinnor end and with them penalised for going over the ball, Myers kicked the goal. A switch move then saw the same player going over under the posts and adding to his try with the simplest of conversions. In the 28th minute, following a wayward kick out of defence, Bridgewater launched the ball across the field to create a sizeable overlap which allowed Tito Elisara to go over unopposed and with Myers adding the extra points Chinnor were 17 pts adrift.

The second half saw Chinnor once again start sprightly and it came as no surprise to see them first on the score sheet. The try initially came from a rolling maul, and then a quick release saw some slick handling to put Eric Brown away to score wide out. A fine conversion and then a penalty minutes later put Chinnor well and truly back in the game. That they did this in a period when Darren Oxley was sin-binned for back chatting the referee was all the more laudable. A penalty from the reliable Myers then put Bridgewater two scores ahead and then a try by Jon Edwards and finally Dan Kemmish, both converted by Myers on the final whistle were the nails in the coffin for this brave Chinnor effort.

For Chinnor Anthony Pyers made some strong runs down the middle of the park as did Eric Brown who always looked a danger. Johann de Bruin also had one of his better games. The scrummaging was better than it has been for weeks , and as always skipper Matt Hutchins led by example. This most certainly was not a roll over performance with Chinnor answering the call to play for " The Bird in Hand ". !!