Chinnor were welcomed to deepest Devon by excellent playing conditions with sunshine, no wind and a soft surface to play on. They opened their account after just 6 minutes with a driving maul putting Nathan Hannay over for a try converted by Roddy Giles. Exmouth were not going to be easy prey and responded with two well taken penalties by full back Cadywould to reduce Chinnor’s lead to 6 – 7 points.

Chinnor then piled on the pressure with some excellent passages of play. Close passing and driving runs by the forwards then released the three quarters with their swift handling to put winger Charlie Broughton over in the corner for an unconverted try. A similar pattern of play continued with Armitage switching with full back Goss who carved through Exmouth’s defence to score under the post with Giles adding the conversion for a 6 – 19 point lead.

Just before half time the Exmouth backs broke through the Chinnor defence but were stopped just short of the try line. A clearing penalty kick seemed to relieve the pressure on Chinnor. However, they lost the resulting lineout allowing Charlie Gibbings to score near the corner for Exmouth with Cadywould adding the conversion bringing the half time score to 13 – 19 in Chinnor’s favour.

Chinnor dominated the start of the second half with their driving runs, support play and quick hands. Eventually a trademark Chinnor try was scored with a penalty kick to the corner followed by a driving maul from the lineout putting Hannay over for an unconverted try.

Exmouth then turned the tables on Chinnor and pinned them into their own 22 metre area resulting in a Yellow card for Manning. The Exmouth forwards began driving towards the Chinnor post and were joined by four of their backs to give them the momentum required to drive Mark Wathes over for a try converted Cadywould and so bring them back in contention with just a four point deficit 20 – 24.

Chinnor responded immediately with a Giles penalty, followed by penetrating breaks by ‘man of the match’ Hannay and Goodfellow. Chinnor had a try disallowed but followed up with another penalty kicked by replacement fly half, Basil Strang. In the last few minutes Armitage intercepted an Exmouth pass and put Strang away on a 40 metre sprint to score in the corner and convert his own try leaving Chinnor as worthy winners, 20 – 37 points.

Whilst Exmouth stayed in touch on the scoreboard until the last 15 minutes, this was a significant step forward in performance by Chinnor with an encouraging return to form for the backline who reminded us of how crisp they can be. The possession stats and a neutral observer would have them well in front with 5 tries to 2.

Next week Chinnor take on 4th from bottom Barnes at Kingsey Road with the intention of maintaining their top of the table position. The last 10 games of the season are set to be an exciting prospect.

Teams

Exmouth
Rich Cadywould, Matt Ryan, Ollie Rice, Mark Wathes, Jack Downie, George Meadows, Ruairi Cushion, Ollie Dawe, Charlie Gibbings, Isaac Dalton, Jack Fahy ©, Mike Richards, James Harris, Dave Bargent, John Kelly

Interchanges: George Savage, Aiden Taylor, Tom Brown, Aaron Thompson, James Mattin, Tom Bedford

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Charlie Broughton, Danny Barnes ©, Bevon Armitage, Luke Hibberd, Roddy Giles, Greg Goodfellow, Ricky Cano, Jamie Townsend, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, Ben Manning, Richard Thorpe, Alex Bradley, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Tom Price, Mark Darlington, Ross Parkins, Basil Strang, Henry Lamont

Scorers

Exmouth
Tries (time): Gibbings 37, Wathes 48
Conversions (time): Cadywould 38, 49
Penalty Goals (time): Cadywould 9, 17

Chinnor
Tries (time): Hannay 6, 43 Broughton 20, Goss 30, Strang 81
Conversions (time): Giles 7, 31 Strang 73
Penalty Goals (time): Giles 52, Strang 82

Referee: Mr Luke Haskins
Attendance: 200
Half time score: 13-19
Full time score: 20-37
Star man: Nathan Hannay - Chinnor