League Winners

Chinnor Seconds Match Report for 6th April 2013
Chinnor seconds vs. Shelford Seconds
Chinnor seconds travelled to Shelford for the Shield league return fixture. It was destined to be a tough game and this time Shelford having home advantage. Being the final game of the league and with having won all, the pressure was on for a clean sweep. The conditions proved to be tough on the players having to play on a brick hard grass free pitch with stud holes covering the entire pitch. The team was also disadvantaged with having lost Jack Horwood, San Angel, Jordan Wood, Ricky Hopwood and Tristan Corpe to the firsts, and Trevor Powell with an injury also put pressure on the boys. Two very good teams took to the field on a nice winter’s day for playing rugby.
Chinnor started out a little subdued, contrary to their normal state of play and Captain Ian Stock had to work hard at getting them fired up and motivated. There were a lot of unusual mistakes and the basics lacking. Stocky led by example by scoring with a powerful drive when he crossed the line, it was converted by Alex Stephenson. Three minutes later Chinnor scored again after great forward play for scrumhalf Ben Newman, the second try and again successfully converted by Stephenson and the lead was 14 points to nil. The following 25 minutes produced stop start rugby with the referee seeing a completely different game to everyone else which unfortunately impacted on the players from both teams. The next try went the way of Shelford and then on stroke of half time Aaron Radley crossed the line for Chinnor and the score was 19 points to 5 in Chinnor’s favour. Chinnor’s best players in the first half were Alan Cawston and Ian Stock.
The second half started with the Referee spoiling the game for both sides with the players becoming frustrated and making for unattractive rugby from both teams. Chinnor lost Captain Ian Stock to a bad knee injury which led to uncontested scrums. Ben Hackshaw then came off the bench and made a great impact on the pitch for Chinnor. Just on twenty five minutes Alex Woodhouse crossed the try line for Chinnor but sadly Stephenson’s kick hit the posts from wide out, and Chinnor increased their lead to 24 points to 5. The try also gave Chinnor their bonus point. Shelford came back three minutes later with their second try. Chinnor replied when Ollie Heath crossed for Chinnor’s 5th try giving Chinnor a 29 point to 10 lead, but that was not the end with the last move of the game Shelford added their 3rd with the final score being 29 points to 15. Not one of the best games. But for all that was at stake, finishing the in top spot and making it 16 wins out of 16 league wins, and a total of 24 wins out of 24 games carried its own pressures. So well done boys!
Man of the match this week Alan Cawston.
Walter McGuicken