Bitter pill for Chinnor RFC

MATCH REPORT: Chinnor 20 pts Worthing 32 pts
For the Chinnor side this result was a bitter pill to swallow. In effect they had, in the space of four minutes, managed to turn victory into defeat. The first of the three tries they conceded in this period was most unfortunate, the second debatable as the referee completely ignored a blatant piece of blocking, and the third came as a result of them playing “catch up ” rugby in order to salvage a point.
It was a classic illustration of its kind in pressing the self destruct button.

Chinnor won the toss and elected to play with the strong South Westerly at their backs. This decision did not go to plan as in the 5th minute, Worthing were awarded a try from a forward push-over when No.8 Paul Cox was driven over the line. Two penalty goals by James Cathcart was a reward for a period of sustained Chinnor pressure. When Pip Seymour scored from a delightful set move involving Toby Prescott and Alex Wallace and with Cathcart adding the conversion, all seemed well, with the lead now 8 points, 12 minutes remaining in the half and Chinnor in the ascendancy looking to extend their lead. However following a breakaway by Worthing, an astute kick into the wind by scrum-half Andrew Rogers found the Chinnor defence not covering the blind side and with the ball bouncing kindly into the hands of Charlie McGowan Worthing were just three points adrift at the half time whistle with the luxury of the wind for the last 40 minutes.

Chinnor attacked straight from the beginning of the second half. They went close to scoring with the referee penalising Worthing on a couple of occasions for going over the ball. A superb piece of opportunism by the ever alert Arthur Ellis from the second penalty saw him take it quickly and scamper over the line from some 10 metres out without hardly a hand being placed on him. The conversion by Cathcart gave Chinnor a 10 point cushion which they defended magnificently only conceding a penalty during the next 35 minutes. A breakout from defence where they had defended stoutly close to the scrum and line-out for a long period, proved to be their undoing.With them opening up the field of play and creating a two man overlap, a sloppy pass put Wallace under pressure allowing Richard Kay to collect the lose ball and score.Richard Coulson kicked the conversion to level the scores. Chinnor then momentarily went onto the attack resulting in the Worthing fly half putting in a long defensive kick to the far side of the field Cathcart fielded this kick only to be being challenged by left wing Nielsen who must have been metres offside and then subsequently blocked as he put in a chip kick. With the referee, who’s ego was matched by his girth, waving play on, Worthing were in front. The final try by Nielsen was a gift with Chinnor now hitting a kamikaze mode.

Difficult League this, with no game coming remotely easy So its doubly frustrating to lose at home to a team they were expecting to beat. Both Arthur Ellis and Sam Black played extremely well. With Angus Neilson now being side-lined for six weeks they will need to dig deep, although Ben Hewitt has arrived back from Australia to assist the Chinnor cause.

Photo: Chinnor’s Try scoring winger, Pip Seymour in action against Worthing.