After last week’s demolition of Clifton, Chinnor were looking for another big performance on the road against Bishop’s Stortford, a side they had never previously beaten. Nathan Hannay came back into the second row and Junior Fatialofa replaced Bevon Armitage with Danny Barnes taking over the captaincy.

Stortford were determined to put last week's disappointment at Redruth behind them and their fast and aggressive defence was critical in stemming the flow of quick, front foot ball, as Chinnor came out brightly and dominated the initial exchanges.

The first 10 minutes set the tone, as the home side made chop tackle after chop tackle in their own 22 to prevent the powerful visitors from crossing the try line despite wave after wave of attack. An early penalty to Chinnor was kicked into the corner when perhaps in hindsight a shot at goal may have been more prudent.

Building on this stifling defence, Stortford worked their way steadily back up the pitch and were rewarded with the first points of the game through a penalty from scrum half Tom Banks, which wobbled its way over from almost halfway. Chinnor continued to press but were frustrated by the home team’s defence and some handling errors.

The game continued at a high pace but it was Stortford again that scored, this time with an excellent try after 27 minutes to Dan Elsom, beating the last two men to touch down close to the posts. The score was created by centre Jack Scantlebury with a tremendous half-break and offload to find his openside in close support. Tom Banks added the conversion for a 10 point lead.

Straight from the restart, Chinnor swept straight back onto the attack and a tremendous pickup off his toes by fly half, Bertie Hopkin set up a try for the other openside, Alex Waddingham on 30 minutes. For the next 10 minutes, play see-sawed between two closely matched and highly committed sides, but it was Stortford that ended on the front foot, with Banks leading the way in more swarming attacking play. This produced a breakdown penalty which the scrum half converted to take his team into the break with an 8 point lead, 13-5.

Chinnor started the second half strongly and Stortford found themselves having to defend wave after wave of physical assaults on their line leading to a succession of penalties in front of their posts. After the third reset scrum, the home team’s defence finally succumbed as quick ball to Hopkin saw the fly half dance over under the posts for a converted try after 9 minutes.

Nathan Hanney was replaced by Ross Parkins and straight from the restart Danny Barnes attacked the hitherto solid Stortford midfield. Launching a sweeping attack, Callum Wilson touched down out wide after a clever chip and chase on 53 minutes. The visitors had quickly turned an 8 point half time deficit into a 4 point lead, 13-17.

The momentum appeared to have swung in Chinnor’s favour with one or two home players showing signs of tiring but this quickly changed when Stortford winger Jimmy Rea followed up a pinpoint grubber kick from Tom Coleman to touch down in the corner.

The try was unconverted but with Bertie Hopkin being replaced by Steve Castle after a nasty shoulder injury, the home side seemed to be re-energised and were again in the ascendency. After 65 minutes, Stortford’s replacement back row, Hugh Michell touched down his side's third try, giving close support to his scrum half who had seized on a turnover in the Chinnor 22 to drive hard at the line and offload out of the tackle.

The conversion attempt again went wide but no such mistake was made 5 minutes later when Stortford second row Matt Tomlinson plunged over for their fourth try and a 30-17 lead. With only 10 minutes to go and the game seemingly gone, Chinnor showed their fighting qualities when prop Jay Tyack launched a scything counter attack, ending in a bonus point try near the touchline for replacement Tom Price.

Congratulations to Stortford who produced their best performance of the season to defeat a very strong Chinnor side. With Old Elthamians bonus point defeat of Barnes, Chinnor are now 3 points clear at the top with Worthing the visitors to Kingsey Road on Saturday.

Teams

Bishop’s Stortford
Will Simmonds, Ryan Hutler, Nick Hankin, Jack Scantelbury, Jimmy Rea, Tom Coleman ©, Tom Banks, Rory Young, Declan Caulfield, Tom McCrone, Jon George, Matt Tomlinson, Steve Ball, Dan Elsom, Mark McCraith

Interchanges: Seb Brownhill, Jacob Turner, Hugh Michell, Rory Banks, Pier Dotta

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Callum Wilson, Danny Barnes ©, Junior Fatialofa, Henry Lamont, Bertie Hopkin, Greg Goodfellow, Ricky Cano, Jon Phipps, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, CJ Osazuwa, Richard Thorpe, Alex Waddingham, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Jamie Townsend, Ross Parkins, Tom Price, Gus Jones, Steve Castle

Scorers

Bishop’s Stortford
Tries (time): Elsom 27, Rea 55, Michell 65, Tomlinson 70
Conversions (time): Banks 28, 71
Penalty Goals (time): Banks 15, 40

Chinnor
Tries (time): Waddingham 30, Hopkin 49, Wilson 53, Price 76
Conversions (time): Hopkin 50
Penalty Goals (time):

Referee: Phillip Davies
Attendance: 438
Half time score: 13-5
Full time score: 30-22
Star man: Tom Banks - Bishop’s Stortford