We are now a third of the way through the season and a lot has been said about the start to our campaign and now feels a good moment to address the points raised.

Having had the most successful season in the club's history last year we have become a victim of our own success. A great squad was assembled that would have pushed on again this year but I'm never going to stand in the way of player progression. We have seen Ricardo Cano, Christian 'Tex' Ostberg, Toby Salmon, Alex Waddingham and Jack Hayes all move up the leagues as well as Guido Cambareri, Ed Keohane and Reuben Haile move to different shores. It was also great to see Alfie To'oala back at Kingsey Road Saturday too.

With the loss of such key personal We rebuilt a squad again, and I was really pleased with the group of players. Pre season was a roaring success. We had an incredible strength and conditioner who travelled up twice a week from Brighton and things looked great, but again for various factors out of our control we lost key players Loma Kivalu, Ryan Hopkins, Nelly Keogh, Reece Boughton, Mark Davies, Nev Codlin and Matt Tibbatts.....a constant battle.

Mix into the fact we then had an injury list through September and October that spiked at a massive 41 players unavailable for 1st or 2nd XV rugby, I was even preparing to don the boots myself! We were having 6 players train and quite frankly nothing can be done at that level! On occasions much to the annoyance of my family, I have worked 24/7 to field a team good enough to play at N2.

With all that said we are finally through the doom and gloom; boys back from injury, Forces World Cup over and numbers back at training. It's no coincidence that this has all happened in the last month at a time when our performance and results are improving.

Away from the 1st Team results things at Chinnor are flourishing. One big focus has been creating a pathway for U18's to progress into the 1st team squad and this has been well achieved with current Colts players and last season Colts players making up a third of the 2nd XV on a per game basis...not to make up numbers but on merit. I guarantee we will see this pay dividends in the future. Every Sunday the feedback I am given is truly positive with my senior players integrating with the minis and juniors to help bring on tomorrow's rugby stars, not to mention the wild boys domination and now Ian Stock doing a marvellous job on relaunching a 4th XV.

We at Chinnor are blessed to have such an incredible relationship with the Cornish Pirates and I would like to publicly thank them as this relationship has more than saved us a lot of times this season. In the age of semi pro rugby it is vital every club has a big brother they can lean on. We will all agree that the current crop of Pirates boys had a major influence on last Saturday's result.

I am fully aware the 1st XV results are vital in the feel good of any club but in a trying season when expectation was so high and every element that could possibly have gone wrong has, all I ask is we unite as one. We will not get relegated, that I promise, but we stand by each other. I am very proud of my Boys, they have stuck to a task and are coming out the other side.

Chinnor is a club like I have not experienced before, a very close family, never short of volunteers and people wanting to help...this is what makes it so special. My Staff have been and will continue to be phenomenal....Mark, Megs, Steve, 'H' Machine, and of course my coaches Rikesh and Fats.

As a wise Owl once said, "we are black, we are white, we are dynamite."

Thanks for reading

Matt