Nineteen players made the journey into Warwickshire to represent the Chinnor Colts in the Division 3 play off. The weather was inclement with the rain making a quagmire of the sloping pitch. Undaunted, the side set out to hold off the home side who were well supported.

The front row saw Joshua (Megga) S making a welcome return to playing, along with Shaun B, Louis A and Adam M rotating during the match. In the second row, Richard B and Magnus P were both good in the air competing for or securing line out ball. The back row comprised the ever-ready Ollie J, George L, Archie C, Harry J and Ed M (also returning after a couple of weeks out), again rotating every 10 or 15 minutes.

Scrum half duties were shared between Dan M and Sam T, both distributing well. Josh E was at fly half with Joe H and captain Archie B-G as centres and Jude H and Will F on the wing. Eddie C was at full back.

The game started with Chinnor having to defend against a strong Shipston side. The visitors soaked up the pressure and then tried to play the ball wide, but seemed to lack their characteristic accuracy and fumbled, dropped and lost the ball more often than they would wish. Shipston were blessed with a full squad of forwards and were able to exert pressure at the scrum. Shipston's line out was not very precise and they were penalised a couple of times for not throwing straight.

Shipston elected to kick a penalty for an early 3 points, but then took twenty minutes for their extra bulk to take it's toll and score their first try, which they converted. 10-0. Chinnor had a couple of good chances in the first half but did not complete. Some astute kicking from Josh E helped stave the pressure when it came, some good lines from the centres but the wingers were not given every opportunity and the defence from Shipston was sound.

The second half saw Shipston with the slope and again Chinnor had to soak up a lot of pressure. The conditions were such that both teams experienced handling errors and the scrum count was high! Shipston secured a penalty and kicked to touch 20 yards out from the try-line. They they proceeded to execute an immaculate driving maul, with backs joining the fray, to score their second try. 15-0.

Another penalty came and saw the hosts go 18 points ahead. Then slightly against the grain of play (as Chinnor were now probing and pushing better), a kick over bounced impeccably for the home side to gather and score with only ten minutes to play. Chinnor were now trying to salvage the situation and come away with a score or two. A well-judged kick from Josh E (from a penalty on the hosts's 22) saw the Chinnor players drive over with Ollie J the scorer. Well converted from out wide by Josh E. 25-7 on the final whistle.

Shipston deserved the win, and should probably be competing in one Division higher within the leagues. Chinnor Colts would have benefited from some bigger or more aggressive forwards, but they defended extremely well. Both teams left points untaken, part of that is down to the conditions and part down to not quite executing their moves. The match was well referee-ed and played in good spirit.