Chinnor squash Ealing ambitions (Contributed)

MATCH REPORT – Saturday, March 07 – Chinnor 20 pts Ealing 13 pts.

From a Chinnor perspective, this was a heady day at Kingsey Road on Saturday. In prevailing over the high flying Ealing outfit, Chinnor deserved plaudits of a high magnitude. Ealing, lying second in the league,needed a result to keep their title ambitions alive. Unfortunately for them they came up against a resilient Chinnor XV who were determined to show, to the home support, that their win at Dings Crusaders the previous Saturday was no fluke. They achieved this mainly due to a superb defensive performance and grabbing the few chances that came their way.

Chinnor made two changes, both in the front row, from the previous week. Arthur Ellis, fresh from his England duties, came in at hooker, with Joe Winpenny starting in place of James Eckert.

Ealing started with the breeze at their backs which meant that Chinnor needed to keep the ball in hand through a pick-up and drive approach. This they did showing sensible control during the opening phase of the game. Although they did not make too much ground with this ploy, it nevertheless gave them confidence. Ealing obviously were intent on using the scrummage as an attacking launch pad. From two penalty awards they called for the scrum rather than kicking for the corner or going for goal. The second of these, in the 12th minute, proved to be productive, when ex Wasps Academy No.8 Mark Lock picked up and drove for the Chinnor line. Although he was held up just metres short, Ealing recycled the ball allowing fly half Benjamin Ward to go over near the posts. Peter Hodgkinson, who had a splendid game throughout, made no mistake with the conversion and a penalty some 5 minutes later. With Ealing 10 points to the good it was imperative that Chinnor did not allow them to extend this lead. Indeed it was Chinnor who were next on the score-sheet. Following a forward surge, Chinnor moved the ball to the tight side. Ben Hewitt came into the line from full-back creating just a smidgeon of space for the supporting Chris Mahoney who came off his wing to arrive on the inside of Hewitt. The resultant pass put Mahoney into his stride to outpace the covering defence. He still had it all to do when confronted by Ealing full-back Hodgkinson, but with a faint of the shoulder to the right he swept past the now wrong footed full-back to score under the posts. That this move started some 50 metres out made this try all the more special.James Cathcart added to the conversion. There was still a further 12 minutes left to half-time but the score remained at 10 points to 7 in Ealing’s favour.

With Chinnor now having the benefit of the wind, and the bonus of Cathcart in sound kicking mode, it was game on. Chinnor could not have had a better start. Immediately making use of the wind, they put the ball into the corner. Although twice going close they could not get over the line. With an Ealing put into the scrum it looked as though they had squandered the opportunity. However they were given another chance when Lock spilled the ball, giving Chinnor another scrum feed, just 6 metres out. This time they made no mistake with Peter Wright picking up and forcing his way over the line.Cathcart then slotted a difficult conversion as well as making no mistake with a 45 metre just 5 minutes later.

It was now all Ealing. They came back at Chinnor with an onslaught, involving both forwards and backs which finally resulted in Hodgkinson kicking a penalty in the 71st. minute. Up until then, they had scorned the opportunity of going for three points in favour of an attacking scrum.A welcome break out from defence, saw Ealing transgress, and from the middle of the park, and again some 45 metres out Cathcart kicked the resultant penalty. With 5 minutes of normal time still left on the clock and at least another 5 minutes of injury time to add to this, Chinnor were under the cosh during the whole of this period. They defended to a man to record a memorable win.

Ealing came with a well deserved reputation. They are a high scoring side and in David Howell they have the No.1 try scorer in the league with some 32 tries.That Chinnor restricted them to 13 points, just the one try, and left Howell scoreless puts the Chinor defensive display into persective.