On Saturday the 7th of November, there was a full house at Kingsey Road, with the 1’s, the Scoobies and the Wildboys all hosting. The III’s welcomed Reading II’s for what was always a hard fought encounter.

Chinnor had another strong team out, the return of Mark Wilkinson and debuts for Ed Sharkey and Max Wood had the team sheet looking as illustrious as ever. However, moments before kick-off disaster struck. Resident Vet Ralph ‘Dr Death’ Goodson received a call on the Vet phone and had to depart, leaving the Wildboys without a front row. However all hope was not lost and in true club fashion Captain George White did a last minute transfer with the II’s seeing Deano Collins joining the Wildboys front row and Max Wood making his debut for the II’s.

Chinnor started the game, kicking into the wind, and from the off they looked fired up for this encounter. A strong defensive line saw some powerful hits go in from all over the pitch and after a couple of turnovers Chinnor began to dominate. Before long Adam Draper was dancing through the defensive line to touch down directly under the posts, the resulting conversion was slotted with ease by Tom Hook, putting Chinnor 7-0 up.

Reading began to become slightly dissuaded by way Chinnor were charging into contact with the ball and this allowed breaks from Pretty Pieter Nell and Dane White, sadly neither break saw any additional points, but did see the addition of Tom Warner as Pieter needed a refreshment break.

The next points came soon after, another break from Draper saw him offload to Tom White who picked up well and in turn offload in the tackle to Dean Collins who powered his way over the line. Tom hook, who had clearly practised his kicking since the last outing knocked over his second conversion of the day.

Chinnor continued to press for more tries and they were playing the type of rugby that they talk about at training. Draper made another powerful break, apparently fracturing the cheek and eye socket of the defending Reading player. The Wildboys would like to wish him a speedy recovery. The resulting scrummage after the stop in play for the injury saw Chinnor work the ball out wide and a darting run from Jayson ‘Squidward’ Abbot saw him touch the ball down in the corner. Tom Hook slotted over again to make the score 21-0 leading into half time.

As the second half began it appeared that the Wildboys had gone to sleep and Reading had done quite the opposite, they came out firing, they turned the ball over and a strong break saw the Reading player stretch out an arm to touch down their first try of the day. They narrowly missed the conversion to put the score at 21-5.

Chinnor soon had a penalty within their own half, which many would see a perfect opportunity to kick to touch and attack from the resulting lineout. However Robert Nichols and Jayson Abbott saw it as an ideal opportunity to try their new move. Nichols tapped and gave the ball to Abbott who then shanked the ball almost parallel to his standing position, straight out of play for a Reading lineout. Abbott then blamed Nichols for this manoeuvre, whilst Nichols maintained that it was a good decision as he was too scared to kick against the headwind.

The game then hit a bit of a stalemate for 20 minutes, both teams defending well and in turn creating little in attack. The turning point came when Tom White tackled Reading’s number 8 fractionally late, the 8 took exception to this and took it out on the obvious target of White’s nose. A bit of a fracas then broke out between the two, seeing them both given a 10 minute rest under their posts. With both teams down to 14 men the game opened up and a turn of pace from Jon Down saw him run 40 metres to score his first of the season. James ‘Pathetic Peter’ Way notched over the conversion making it 28-5 to the Wildboys.

Moments later, while both teams still had a one man deficit, Chinnor again were in the attacking quarter and unselfish team play saw George White pass the ball out to Dean Collins who walked over his second of the day, James Way then doubled his tally for the day putting the score at 35-5.

Chinnor then lost Ben Wilkinson to injury, meaning that Tom Warner would step into the front row for his first time in a competitive situation. He did a good job in his first couple of scrums and the way he was grinning after each one would give the impression he was having fun.

5 minute from the end of time Chinnor were scoring their final try of the game, a great individual break from Jon Down saw him heading to the try line, it looked as though his effort may be thwarted by two oncoming Reading players, but they somehow tackled themselves as Down shrugged them off, scoring his second of the Day. Then for some reason Guy Hackshaw decided that he wanted to take the conversion that was directly in front of the posts. James Way mentioned “you better not miss this” however Hackshaw ignored his advice and skewered the ball wide.

When the whistle went the final score was 40-5 in favour of the Wildboys. Notable performances came from George Dane White, Jon Down, Tom White and Pieter Nell, however this week’s Man of the Match performance came from Dean Collins who scored twice and looked sharp throughout.

The Mare of the Match award was hard fought between two individuals. Firstly Jayson Abbott for his part in the aforementioned penalty manoeuvre, however the award went to Guy Hackshaw for deciding to take the final conversion and then missing it.

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Man of the match: Dean Collins
Mare of the match: Guy Hackshaw
Tries: A.Draper (1), D.Collins (2), J.Abbott (1), J.Down (2)
Convs: T.Hook (3), J.Way (2)