06/03/11…..Chinnnor overcome Henley in tight match

ON a cold and windy night on Wednesday, March 2, Chinnor RFC managed eventually to overcome Henley by 23-16 in their defence of the Oxfordshire Senior Cup.

Henley began the better of the two sides and opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a penalty from full-back Adam Lubbock. The scores were levelled some five minutes later when Mark Chase converted a penalty goal attempt for Chinnor. Henley, dominating both ball and territory, began to seriously test the Chinnor defence in its own 22. The dam finally burst when Henley?s Adam Lubbock touched down in the corner to give the visitors an 8-3 lead.

Henley continued to have the better of exchanges but could not convert any of it into points and so went in at half-time with an 8-6 lead. Although Chinnor edged ahead in the 43rd minute with a converted try from the rumbustious Vickers, Chinnor coach Bowers decided that some changes in personnel were necessary and Sam Blewitt was replaced by Andrew Smith. As further replacements were getting ready, the referee awarded a scrum to Chinnor some 10m from the Henley line. Chinnor switched the power on and the referee penalised Henley for collapsing the scrum. On the third occasion this happened, the referee, Tom Davies, did not hesitate to run under the posts to award a penalty try to Chinnor. As Mark Chase prepared to take the conversion, Ricky Hopwood, Matt Goode and Ian Stock came on for Chinnor. This immediately gave Chinnor greater pace and penetration with bullocking runs from Stock a particular feature of the rest of the night?s play.

Although the Henley decreased the gap to 18-11 with a penalty from Lubbock in the 64th minute, the Chinnor pack now began to dominate proceedings and scrum time became an uncomfortable experience for the visitors from Henley. In the 67th minute a well executed Chinnor catch and drive saw Ed Rixon score Chinnor’s third try to give the home side a 23-11 lead. Henley were not to be denied and in the dying minutes pressed the Chinnor line for hooker Ed Church to score in the corner to give a final score of 23-16 to Chinnor.

This was a match of two halves with Henley dominating the first and Chinnor coming alive in the second half. Henley proved to be a good contest for this mixed Chinnor side but eventually succumbed to greater forward power. Mark Chase played with great pace and niggled and prompted well. Williams was at his stepping best and Ed Rixon was strong and dominant throughout the match. The whole pack with its replacements deserve great credit for the Chinnor victory.

Chinnor are now away at Grove in the next round of the cup with the fixture date yet to be determined.

Scorers:
Chinnor: Vickers T; penalty T; Rixon T; Chase 2PG, C
Henley: Lubbock T; Church T; Lubbock 2PG

Chinnor side:
Williams, Corpe, Green, Angell (Goode 54), Seymour, Chase, Prescott (Hopwood 54), Winpenny (c)(Stock 54), Tattersall (Cawston 70), Pickett, Divine, Blewitt (Smith 43), Rixon, Vickers, Mowbray
Replacements: Cawston, Stock, Smith, Goode, Hopwood

SOURCE: Contributed by Dave Winpenny