With Seymour, Stoop, Tattersall, Stock and Harrison all unavailable, Chinnor had to ring several changes for this always competitive match against the Seasiders who were fielding their first choice team.

The match started brightly for Chinnor with the ball moved quickly from a set of rucks to Bas Corpe who slipped Huw Morgan in for Chinnor’s first try in the 1st minute. Weston-Super-Mare soon drew level when a poor clearance from a Weston penalty goal attempt gifted the ball to the Seasiders centre, James Reid, for a try converted by fly half James Mackay.

Weston-Super-Mare then began to dominate proceedings with Mackay pulling all the strings. Relentless pressure from the more aggressive home side eventually paid off when the influential no 8 Graham Sparks went over for Weston’s second try to give them a 12-5 lead. With Chinnor squandering possession and Mackay dinking the ball over the Chinnor defence to great effect, Weston were in the ascendancy but were prevented from scoring with effective scramble defence from the visitors. Penalty goals were traded by first Cathcart for Chinnor and then Mackay to give a half time lead of 15-8 to the Seasiders.

Chinnor’s no 8, Fan, failed to reappear for the second half and was replaced by Devine. Shortly after the restart, Mackay increased Weston’s lead to 18-8 with a penalty goal and Chinnor lost another to injury with Pickett replaced by Whelan.

Chinnor then had a period in the home side’s 22 but laboured to score until Goode running back to the blind side, powered over for Chinnor’s second try. The resultant conversion from Cathcart had now brought the visitors to within 3 points with the score 18-15 to the home side.

This only served to fire up Weston who attacked the Chinnor 22 with vigour. Hutchings, the Chinnor skipper, was then yellow carded for interference at the ruck. The pressure on the remaining 14 increased and this then became the turning point of the match as Weston were repulsed for a full 10 minutes. The home side then went down to 14 as winger Middlemiss was given a 10 minute rest.

With 6 minutes left on the clock and the score at 18-15, Chinnor elected to kick a long range penalty. Cathcart’s success brought the scores level at 18-18. On the 77th minute, Weston’s Mackay produced a wonder snap drop kick from a messy ruck some 30 metres wide out. As the ball sailed cleanly over the posts, Chinnor hearts sunk and the home support were jubilant with the score now at 21-18 to Weston. The Chinnor pack then threw everything into the restart and resultant ruck. The ball eventually came Chinnor’s way and, as the referee began to raise his whistle for no side, Cathcart launched a prodigious cross field kick. The crowd went silent as the Weston fullback, Waterman, and Chinnor’s Serrano raced for the ball, now bobbling into the dead ball area. Conceding an initial few metres, Serrano’s pace and, above all, his determination, saw him ground the ball cleanly fractions of a second before his opponent. The referee, doing well to keep up with play, had no hesitation in awarding the try. Had he had any doubt, the exuberant and slightly manic jig of delight of two Chinnor supporters inches from the touchdown was good indication of a clean score.

The home side watched silently as Cathcart rubbed salt into Weston’s wounds with the conversion. As the ball soared over, the ref blew for full time as the rest of the Chinnor support joined in the jig of delight.

Weston-Super-Mare proved to be a very capable and aggressive team. In fly half James Mackay they had a compelling play maker and skipper George Sparks had a towering match.

Chinnor’s sweat and determination got them through a slightly disjointed performance although they outscored their hosts by three tries to two. Not enough ball went the backs way and a wider game would have produced better results. Max Williams had an industrious game and produced frequent turnover ball. The combined defensive efforts of the whole team to deny Weston a score in the last quarter was significant and laudable but hats off must go to James Cathcart for his bravery and accuracy with the cross field kick in the 80th minute and for James Serrano’s utter and unblinking determination to score.

Scorers:
Chinnor: Morgan T; Goode T; Serrano T; Cathcart 2C. 2PG
Weston-Super-Mare: Reid T; Sparks T; Mackay C, 2PG, DG

Chinnor team: Williams R, Serrano, Goode (Serrano 42), Morgan, Corpe, Cathcart, Prescott, Winpenny, Cawston, Pickett (Whelan 59), Hutchings (Devine 50), Smith, Hastings, Williams M, Fan
Replacements: Whelan, Devine, Hopwood

Weston-Super-Mare team: Waterman; Middlemiss, Saunders, Bennett, Sprague; Mackay, Conway; Swann, Burge, Williams, Richards, Russell, Glen, Simpson, Sparks (capt). Reps: Price, Wright, Reid

AND IF YOU WANT A REALLY GOOD LAUGH HAVE A READ OF THE WESTON MATCH REPORT HERE: https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/westonsupermare/?primary=senior&secondary=matchreports&team_id=436&report_id=96140

Anyone who went to the game will have a very very different view to this piece of one-eyed writing!