Chinnor RFC ‘never say die’

MATCH REPORT- November 15-Report by Bill O’Donnell.

EALING prevailed in this all action match by 46 points to 26, but Chinnor will take many positives away.

Chinnor opened the scoring on 4 minutes with a well hit penalty goal. Ealing hit back shortly afterwards with a try from centre Joe Price. Chinnor got back to a 6-5 lead when Hewitt struck another penalty goal. With increasing influence from their centres Price and James, Ealing began to run some fast paced patterns with Hodkinson scoring an unconverted try to give Ealing a 10 – 6 lead.
With a delightful move of their own, Wallace engineered a likely score only for his pass to be dropped with an unopposed 5 metre run in. Sadly, a similar thing happened again in the match for Chinnor who seemed to be out of luck when scoring opportunities presented themselves. Hewitt stepped up to give Chinnor some hope with another penalty goal to reach halftime with Ealing just 10-9 ahead.

After the interval, Ealing stepped up their game considerably with the driving and forceful play of ex-Wasp flanker Mark Lock increasingly influential. Three minutes after the restart, centre James ran through the away defence to set up a sweet try for Tom Parker, converted by fly half Ward. However, Chinnor showed some of their own magic. Arthur Ellis reacted quickly to a free quick and surged down the pitch, offloading the perfect pass for scrum half Prescott, rapid in support, who touched down under the posts. Hewitt converted to put Chinnor just one point behind at 17-16.

Ealing then hit a purple patch with three tries in five minutes. The tries came from Joe Price and two from the extremely quick Ealing wing, Howells ? one of which was a 65 metre dash after intercepting a probable Chinnor score. Converting two, Ealing lead 36-16.

With great credit, Chinnor never lost their commitment and were rewarded in the 64th minute when Prescott finished off a period of Chinnor forward pressure to score a try wide out to make the score 36-21. Wallace then struck to add another try to bring the score to 36-26. A penalty goal from Ward and another converted try for his hat trick from Howells saw Ealing through to the end by 46 ? 26.

To the neutral this was a high intensity, all action match thanks largely to the endeavour of both teams to keep the ball moving. Great credit should also go to the match referee, on exchange from South Africa, who showed how top quality refereeing can benefit a match. Chinnor were eventually undone by sheer pace and showed how having all your wingers injured can hurt you. Chinnor?s Ellis and Prescott had good matches and the team as a whole did well in the face of some frightening pace.