CHINNOR endured a disappointing day at the office as Bishop’s Stortford left Kingsey Road with a bonus-point victory.

The visitors were good value for their win, dominating up front in miserable conditions as we suffered a fifth home defeat of the season.

Stortford had crossed four times within the hour to lead 23-12, with Morgan Veness and Will Millett scoring our tries.

We huffed and puffed to reduce the deficit, and set up a tense finale when Caolan Ryan converted Max Clementon’s try with four minutes to go.

However, it just wasn’t to be our afternoon on a day when we conceded 24 penalties, while Stortford produced a gritty display to deservedly come away with maximum points.

While the nature of the defeat was tough to take, news that Rosslyn Park, Cinderford and Rams had all suffered defeats on the road filtered through, meaning we had missed out on an opportunity to close the gap to the top of the table.

The late try ensured we continued our record of picking up a losing bonus point in defeat, but the attention will now switch to Rams next Friday night.

Chinnor made only a handful of changes from the narrow loss to Rosslyn Park six days ago. With Oli Curry away, Alfie North moved into the second row, with Clementson coming into the side at openside flanker. Elliot Chilvers was also handed a start at loosehead prop and Sam Yawayawa came in at inside centre.

Stortford and ourselves are old adversaries and some would argue the Bedfordshire side are a bogey team of ours, having won seven of our last ten encounters.

The visitors stole our lineout in a promising position in just the second minute and perhaps it was a sign of things to come on a day when our set-piece rarely functioned.

We were the better side in the opening exchanges and we took the lead on seven minutes. You could already see our intent was to bring our backs into play and we spread the ball wide for Kieran Goss who made up a valuable couple of metres. Stortford were subsequently penalised at the breakdown and we kicked to the corner, resulting in Veness crashing over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Leading 5-0, we looked to capitalise off the early score and scrum-half Jack Walsh sent a fine kick down towards the Stortford 22. We mauled forward off the lineout and Conor Brockschmidt carried well, but the visitors kept us at bay and their defensive effort was rewarded with a penalty on the floor.

We only had five points to show from a promising opening 12 minutes, but Stortford went on to move up the pitch, gaining confidence as they did so.

Charlie Connolly’s yellow card on 15 minutes allowed them to get a further foothold in the game and they went on to score off their first lineout deep in our half. Outside centre Ollie Betteridge ran a fine line off the set-piece and scampered over for an unconverted try to level the scores at 5-5.

Stortford now had their tails up and Tom Walker’s penalty in front of the posts put them into an 8-5 lead, but they went on to lose their momentum in bizarre circumstances.

As Connolly was about to come back on to the pitch following his sin-bin, a discussion broke out on the touchline between the officials and both benches. Concerns were raised over a graze on the tighthead prop’s face from the artificial pitch at Park the previous week and, after suggestions it was an infectious injury, it was covered as a precaution.

We arguably benefited from the break in play and started enjoying more territory, resulting in full-back Millett crossing for his fourth try in as many games in the left-hand corner. Ryan stepped up to convert from the touchline to put us into a 12-8 lead after 32 minutes.

The rest of the half proved to be a scrappy and stop-start affair, but Stortford ended it with their noses in front. A counter-attack saw the ball hacked on down the right and winger Oscar Heath did well to win the foot race and then drive forward, but he was tackled into touch ten metres out. Stortford made the most of the field position, mauling their way forward before attacking on the blind as Dan Powell dived over in the corner to make it 13-12 at the break.

The visitors seemed to take that momentum into the second period and an early penalty allowed them to kick to the corner. We did brilliantly to stop their driving maul dead, but then a five-minute period ensued where the ball barely left our 22 as both sides were penalised for various offences.

Eventually, Stortford made their territory count as Harrison King plunged over from a driving lineout as they extended their lead to six points on 53 minutes.

There were flashes for Chinnor in attack, but Stortford’s confidence was increasing with every minute that went by as their scrum continued to function impressively while they defended the breakdown extremely well.

The visitors were deservedly ahead and went on to secure the four-try bonus point on the hour mark. They countered off a scrum on half-way and a hack forward led to an almighty scramble which resulted in a Stortford scrum just five metres out. They were unable to drive forward from the set-piece, but a fine grubber from Tom Banks sent Joss Linney over in the corner to make it 23-12.

With 20 minutes to go there was still time to respond, but a combination of errors and dogged Stortford defending kept us at bay. An un-straight lineout dented any hopes of an almost immediate reply on 64 minutes, before we were driven backwards in the subsequent lineout, resulting in a penalty which fly-half George Cullen booted over half-way.

However, there was space out wide for Chinnor and fine hands from Yawayawa and Millett released Heath down the left with 14 minutes to go. The winger hacked on and gave chase, but full-back Walker covered well and cleared.

Heath was again the outlet a couple of minutes later and another strong break resulted in a Stortford knock-on, which saw Millett kick us up to the 22, but our lineout was stolen.

The visitors were forced to finish the game with 14 men when hooker King was sin-binned for preventing Walsh from taking a quick tap-penalty and there was still hope of a late comeback.

Hodson, who replaced Heath on the left wing, chased after a Walsh kick in behind and was just beaten to the ball by Walker who could only boot out for a lineout. This provided us with the perfect opportunity to cut the deficit and Clementson was driven over with four minutes to go. Ryan then superbly added the conversion to cut the deficit to four points with three minutes remaining.

We went in search of a match-winning try which would have also secured a bonus-point victory. Hodson and Goss both made breaks down their wings, but Stortford defended manfully.

With the clock ticking down, we had all the possession and territory, but the visitors were able to withstand our efforts and leave with the points.

Chinnor: Millett, Goss, Worrall, Yawayawa, Heath, C Ryan, Walsh, Chilvers, Veness, Connolly, North, Brockschmidt, Manning, Clementson, W Ryan.
Reps: Tonga’uiha, Lines, Tuilagi, Hodson, Ham.

Bishop’s Stortford: Walker, Powell, Betteridge, Scantlebury, Smith, Cullen, T Banks, Roberts, King, McCrone, Charter, Thacker, Apperley, Rayment, R Banks.
Reps: Caulfield, Brownhill, Bridges, Smart, Linney.