The Hosts elected to play with the slope and wind advantage and aided by a few early errors by the Oxfordshire outfit pegged Chinnor back in Hellfire corner for the first period of the game. Two home lineouts on the Chinnor 5 m line were stolen in quick succession which thwarted any meaningful attacks by the large Redruth side. With their first serious passage of possession Chinnor broke down field and set up their first rolling maul of the game. This led to Alex Dancer diving over for the first score of the game on 8 minutes giving Chinnor a 0-5 lead. In difficult conditions the conversion was missed by Jonny Bentley

The Cornish side continued to take advantage of the slope and with the Chinnor defensive line overstepping the mark pegged the score back to 3-5 with a penalty from Webber (the only successful kick of the entire game!). Chinnor continued to defend with passion with the work rate of Jack Ramshaw and Ollie Curry in particular standing out. However the defence was finally breached on 29 minutes with Brown going over for the Reds giving them a lead of 8-5.

This sparked some fine tuning of the Chinnor line up which upped the tempo of the game. This enabled the backline to move with more fluidity. Following a flowing move Orisi Nawaqaliva powered over the line to put the visitor ahead at the break 8 - 10

In the second half Chinnor had the advantage of the wind and, strength sapping, slope. The visitors adopted the host’s normal tactic of pinning the opposition in Hellfire Corner. A mixture of rigorous defence by the Redruth /white line fever/ questionable decision making was ended when Jack Gilding forced his way over to provide some day light on the score board on 51 minutes 8- 15.

Chinnor forwards then exerted their stranglehold on the game and starved the hosts of any meaningful possession. Following a number of opportunities for Chinnor captain Danny Barnes crashed over from short range to secure the bonus point and the game on 71 minutes.

There was time on the clock for Redruth to sneak a bonus point on 80 mins when their substitute Lomu drove over to make the score at full time 13 -20

It was the most all round performance from the Chinnor pack this season who’s work rate and game control under pressure was impressive. When given quality ball the backline were equally incisive.

The small matter of a visit by 3rd placed Taunton to Chinnor on 2nd Dec is the next challenge for the league leaders!!!

STAR MAN JACK RAMSHAW