CHINNOR ramp up their preparations for the new National 1 campaign when they travel to Carmarthen Quins for their opening pre-season friendly on Saturday.

Our Men's First XV make the trip to Carmarthenshire bidding to dust off the cobwebs, establish those patterns, and get minutes into the players.

The squad has been back training since the start of July and will be relishing the prospect of returning to a match environment, with home friendlies to follow against Blackheath (August 20) and Worthing (August 27) in the coming weeks.

It is all in preparation for the 2022/23 season which starts on Saturday, September 3 at Darlington Mowden Park and this weekend's fixture will be played across four quarters of 20 minutes.

Carmarthen, who finished eighth in the Welsh Premiership last season, already have a match under their belts, beating Llanelli Wanderers 31-22 in a 60-minute contest last weekend, and we know from last year that it will prove to be a tough test.

The friendly at Kingsey Road 12 months ago proved to be a good workout for our players, with Quins edging it late on 17-15, so we are looking forward to this Saturday's challenge in Wales.

If you are joining us at Carmarthen, kick-off is 2:30pm, with the address being Morfa Lane, SA31 3AX.