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The conditions were most certainly
not suited for an expansive game. In scoring seven tries Chinnor
made light of the elements. They still managed to exploit the
speed of their backs, particularly in the first half, where they
played into the driving wind and rain. In Phil Huxford, Pip
Seymour and Martyn O'Mahoney, Chinnor possess an exceptionally
pacey back three. With a sound half-back pairing and a solid
pair of centres, Chinnor are now able to cause problems to most
of their opponents. This was so on Saturday against Weston Super
Mare.
Chinnor elected to
play into the wind at Kingsey Road on Saturday. The early
skirmishes were evenly balanced, with Chinnor endeavouring to
keep the ball in hand opting for route one via their forwards. A
break out by Chinnor from inside their 22 metre line saw then
spread the ball wide giving Pip Seymour the opportunity to
outstrip the covering defence and score at the corner flag. Into
the driving wind the attempted conversion was a non starter even
by James Cathcart's standards. This try in the 12th minute was
followed by another some 14 minutes later when Darren Oxley
joined a forward drive to score near the posts. Cathcart
converted this one, although after the ball went through the
posts, the wind drove it back from whence it came. Owen
Gustafson was next on the score sheet after supporting a move
which once again started well inside Chinnor territory. With
Phil Huxford showing an exceptional change of pace to deceive
the cover defence , Chinnor had scored 4 tries into the wind at
the interval.
For the first quarter of the
second half, Weston were a different team. With their forwards
taking the game to the home side, they battered the Chinnor line
with a last ditch defence just keeping them at bay, and when the
ball was turned over, the relieving kick went many a mile.
However they still came back at Chinnor before a break out saw
Darren Oxley shrug off a couple of tacklers to offload to the
supporting Grizz McQuire to go over under the posts, allowing
Cathcart an easy conversion. Further tries from James Cathcart
after prolonged pressure allowed him to go over, with no one at
home, and finally following a delicate chip from Trevor Powell,
Richard Williams won the chase to the touch down.
This was a sensible performance
from a Chinnor side who recognise that this was just one
performance out of the four required to scale the dizzy heights.