Chinnor keep cool heads in freezing conditions to beat Bury

IT took cool heads in freezing conditions to see off the challenge of free flowing Bury St Edmunds on Saturday, but despite being outscored five tries to six, Chinnor RFC secured their 13th win of the campaign.

For the second week in a row Chinnor got on the score sheet early with an impeccable lineout catch and drive. Jack Gilding emerged from the pile to claim the points on eight minutes. Then Bury struck back with a speculative grubber causing confusion on the Chinnor line allowing the Suffolk side in at the corner flag which on the advice of the touch judge was upgraded to a penalty try with a yellow card issued to Jamel Hamilton for ‘playing the player without the ball’.

Chinnor’s 14 men regrouped and struck back with Jack Ramshaw powering over to give Chinnor a 5-12 lead. Bury had a simple game plan – to hit the wide man Corcoran and let him run! It was a tactic that Chinnor failed to deal with effectively all afternoon. On 27 mins it paid dividends again with the pacey winger running in for the first of his hat-trick.

Chinnor’s scrum dominance strangely went unrewarded by the officials for the full 80 mins. However, they stayed focused and George Oliver duly finished of an excellent series of phase play to give Chinnor a half time lead 12-19

The first score after the break was going to set the scene for the rest of the game. Chinnor, comfortable in possession, gifted an intercept to the home side to allow Corcoran to touch down on on 41 mins and the conversion levelled the scores. It was game on!. Jonny Bentley then edged the visitors ahead with a coolly slotted penalty. A Beales try then swung the pendulum back towards Bury.

There followed an exhibition of running rugby from both sides which was appreciated by the packed Haberden crowd. Henry Lamont cut through the Suffolk sides defence to score and was shortly followed by a superb length of the field run by Kieran Goss which set up Al Gliksten to dive over. These, in true form, were answered by two tries out wide again by the Bury pace men which made the scores level 34-34 with 10 minutes left to play.

Chinnor then showed their class in front of the raucous home crowd by working their way up the pitch and earn a penalty 25m out to the sides of the posts. Replacement Bertie Hopkin stepped up to slot the winning points. With five minutes left to play Bury threw everything at the Chinnor line but it was in vain as after several phases of text book defending Bury St Edmunds infringed and Bertie Hopkin put the ball in touch to seal the five points.

This was a great game for the neutral and the packed Haberden stand helped their side to a deserved two points. Chinnor made life difficult for themselves but it was job done! Five points in the bag and on to Canterbury at home next week.

SOURCE: Contributed