Wednesday 5th May, 2010

Oxfordshire Veterans Floodlit Cup Final

Chinnor RFC Oxen (Vets) XV 19 v Grove RFC Vets – 3

Venue: Oxford University Sports Ground, Iffley Road, Oxford.

Vets win cup final to secure a cup double for Chinnor

Chinnor Vets took to the field at Iffley Road last Wednesday as holders of the floodlit cup and favourites in some peoples eyes. The Chinnor boys took to the field knowing that there was a job to do against a Grove side hey have never faced. What they did not know is quite how hard the job was.

Grove started strongly, camping themselves in the the Chinnor half the first 20 minutes, the defence from the Chinnor boys was awesome which denied Grove any score during that period of pressure, fortunately the Grove kicker hadn't brought his boots and left 6 points on the table missing two penalties in that period.

After the first 20 Chinnor fought themselves out of their half and based themselves on the Grove line, for about 5 minutes Grove held back the Chinnor onslaught before succumbing to a snaping dart from Scrum Half Bill Deeley for the first score, skillfully converted by Conor Begley.

From there Grove slotted a penalty after a good break shortly before half time to leave the half time score 7-3 to the men from Thame.

The second half did not let up, the pace was ferocious as were the hits, about 10 minutes after the break, following a well worked break John Sellars, last years man of the match, forced his way over the Grove line skillfully to make the score 12 – 5.

From there both teams looked exhausted, having traded some hefty blows throughout the match thus far, a final score was added by Hooker Mike Wiltshire, converted again by Conor Begley, leaving the final score 19 – 3. Both teams were extremely complimentary about the spirit of the match and there were no complaints as both knew they had been in a hard fought match.

Having beaten Oxford Harlequins Vets 22 – 5 and Bicester Vets 24 – 0 earlier in the tournament Chinnor are worthy champions this season and fully deserve their 2nd title in 2 years. This win secures a historic cup double, Chinnor 1st team having won the county senior cup at the same venue a week before, to hold both the senior and Vets cups is testament to the strength at the club within the county.

It was a squad performance and so no single performance could be singled out, however the Oxford RFU's man of the match for the way he dictated the Chinnor attack was John Vaughan, playing fly half.

Floodlit Cup Squad: Giles Kidner, Mike Wiltshire, Mike Hughes, Craig Smith, John Cann, Andy Millburn, Kenny Lue, Carl Buckland, Simon Turner, Simon Pearson, Steve Bridges, Paul Fincken, Gordon Fennell, Bill Deeley, Doug Humphries, Johnny Vaughan, Dave Wells, Jon Brooks, Richard Simpson, John Sellars, Jon Durrant, Ben Forward, Gavin Wade-Williams, Pete McDermott, Rob Atkin, Conor Begley, Tony Howells, Jeremy Philpott, Kieron Hall,