CHINNOR Wildboys clinched the league title as they dug deep to share the spoils with Wallingford under the Wednesday Night Lights at Kingsey Road.

A strong crowd witnessed a physical, attritional and nerve-wracking affair, which saw our 3rd XV front up to resist a strong performance from our visitors.

Due to injury, our Wildboys also had to play some 25 minutes with 14 men and the two points ultimately proved enough for them to be crowned Counties 1 Southern North champions heading into this Saturday’s final fixtures as they now hold an unassailable seven-point lead.

An outstanding effort considering this is the team’s first season at Level 7 and the unbeaten run stretching back to January 2018 is still intact.

We made a fast start against Wallingford to lead 7-0 after three minutes. Putting Wallingford under the cosh straight from the kick-off, full-back Sam Nicholls superbly found his way over from a tap-and-go, and brother Charlie slotted the extras.

A sustained period of pressure from the visitors followed but they only came away with three points, while at the other end tighthead Dean Collins was held up.

Our Wildboys were then reduced to 14 men when Sam Nicholls was yellow-carded, but despite Wallingford’s best efforts they could not find their way over the whitewash with more superb defensive work keeping them at bay.

It remained 7-3 at half-time in what had been a hard-hitting 40 minutes with both sides determined to win.

Wallingford made a strong start to the second half and did finally score the try they had been searching for, with the conversion added for a 7-10 lead after 45 minutes.

However, we were not behind for long as Sam Nicholls slotted a monster 45m penalty to bring the game level.

The bruising nature of the contest continued and with Dan Coulon and Sean Latham already forced off through injury, Guy Hackshaw also suffered a knock so we were down to 14 for the rest of the match.

Although Wallingford slotted another penalty to make it 10-13 just after the hour, our Wildboys rolled up their sleeves and Sam Nicholls replied with ten minutes remaining to bring the scores level once more.

That was how it finished and it needed to be a heroic effort to stop a Wallingford side – unbeaten since November – which looked determined to spoil the party.

A great night, a great match and we’re sure the celebrations were pretty great too. Now on to the last game of the season and our Wildboys head to Bracknell 2nd this Saturday for their third fixture in eight days.

Wildboys: S Nicholls, McIntosh, Prosser, Nichols, Chapman, C Nicholls, Coulon; Crockford, Taylor, Collins, Inman, Latham, Hackshaw, Alexander, Hope.
Reps: Whitfield, Hanson, Blewitt.