CHINNOR returned to winning ways with a well-deserved bonus-point victory over bottom side Tonbridge Juddians.

Our First XV delivered one of their best home performances of the season in wet and windy conditions at Kingsey Road.

Scrum-half Luke Carter produced a man-of-the-match performance, scoring two tries (possibly even three) and expertly controlling a stop-start game.

The victory is our first at home since November and ends a five-match winless run in National League 1.

The positives keep on flowing as both Soane Tonga’uiha and Dean Hammond scored their first tries for the Club, while Oscar Heath’s superb 60m interception try rounded off a good day.

We headed into the game determined to arrest our recent poor run and four changes – three positional - were made in the backs. Heath came into the side on the right wing, meaning Kieran Goss moved to full-back, James Bourton to 12 and Jason Worrall to 13.

There were also a few tweaks in the forwards, with hooker Mark Darlington handed his first start since returning to the Club in January and tighthead prop Rob Hardwick making a welcome return from England U20 duty.

Electing to play with the strong wind at our backs, we took an early 3-0 lead through a fourth-minute Bourton penalty, but in truth it was a nervy opening 20 minutes.

During that time, we found ourselves 5-3 down as wing Hugo Watson finished off full-back Harvey Young’s break from inside his own half.

We had to dig in to prevent Juddians from adding to their tally, but our opening try seemed to be exactly what we needed as we crossed three times in the space of ten minutes.

After Tonbridge scrum-half Matt Walsh kicked out on the full, we had the opportunity to launch an attack off a lineout on 22 minutes. Carter was sniping around the maul and shot through a gap and over from 20m. Bourton stepped up to add the extras and put us into a 10-5 lead.

The scrum-half was soon diving over again and it was in very similar fashion. We took good care of the ball off a lineout on the Tonbridge 22 and Carter snuck through a gap at the breakdown and scampered over for his second. Again, Bourton stepped up to convert and extend our advantage to 12 points.

We were now on top and we made our dominance count with try number three arriving on the half-hour mark. An unstoppable driving lineout rumbled towards the whitewash from the 22 and loosehead prop Tonga’uiha crashed over – Bourton adding the extras – to make it 24-5.

That was how it stayed as we headed into the break, although there was time for a magnificent jackal from Willie Ryan, while Tonbridge hooker Ryan Jackson was sin-binned following a scuffle over on the far side of the pitch.

Juddians now had the wind to their advantage in the second half and dominated the opening 20 minutes, both territorially and in possession.

Flanker Ben Ashmore drove over for an unconverted try but despite having Ben Glynn sent to the sin-bin, we denied the visitors another score.

With the wind howling down towards the Club Shop, Tonbridge sensibly continued to kick the ball down into that corner, but we held firm and defended manfully to stop them from adding to their tally.

A yellow card for Juddians lock Toby Freeman on the hour perhaps helped to ease the pressure as fly-half Nick Smith kicked us out of our half and up to the 22.

It was a rare visit to the Tonbridge half, but we made it count. We spread the ball wide quickly off the lineout and sent Hammond racing down his left wing. He still had plenty of work to do and produced a sublime diving finish in the corner despite the best efforts of Duncan Tout. Bourton was unable to add the extras, but it was a superb score worth watching again in Monday’s Trylights and it put us into a 29-10 lead after 64 minutes.

The four-try bonus-point had been secured, but there was still a nervy atmosphere around the ground due to the season we had been having at home – we need not have worried, though.

Two minutes later and Carter thought he had scored his hat-trick. Goss broke free from a tackle and raced over half-way like we have seen him do so many times in his Chinnor career. He hacked on and Carter won the race to the ball and went over the try-line under a body of players. However, he was denied his third of the day when referee Calum Howard adjudged it to have been held up.

Tonbridge continued to come at us and, with Goss now in the sin-bin, they looked certain to cross for a third time on 75 minutes. However, Watson knocked on with the try-line at his mercy having collected his own dinked kick over the top and then hacked on to beat the last man.

While Juddians were unable to take that chance, Heath certainly took his. With the visitors in possession in our half, the right winger read a pass so well to intercept and run in for an impressive try from 60m, which he celebrated with his trademark ‘Shearer’ arm aloft.

It was some way to complete the scoring and you could almost feel the sense of relief at the final whistle as a win could finally be celebrated again at Kingsey Road.

A morale-boosting victory and we head to Plymouth Albion with confidence.

Chinnor: Goss, Heath, Worrall, Bourton, Hammond, N Smith, Carter, Tonga’uiha, Darlington, Hardwick, Glynn, W Ryan, North, Manning, Tuilagi.
Reps: Lines, Robinson, A Hunt, Brockschmidt, Walsh.

Tonbridge Juddians: Young, Chapman, Tout, Nicol, Watson, White, Walsh, Boon, Jackson, Bratton, Freeman, Parker, Duffy, Ashmore, Colderick.
Reps: O’Sullivan, Sassone, Reid, McGhie, Taylor-Dennehy.