Author: Sonja Francis

IN this one sided match, Chinnor RFC scored 12 tries to overcome Barnstaple 76-5 and move themselves to second in the table.

Straight from the start, Chinnor went on the attack and scored, through Burns, on the second minute. The scores then came at regular intervals as Barnstaple struggled to get into the match. A break by Burns saw Armitage in for Chinnor’s second. Lamont was next from wide out. Barnstaple then incurred the ref’s displeasure when a illegal interference too many saw Barnstaple’s Hilton into the bin and a penalty try to Chinnor. A rolling maul led to CJ Osazuwa’s try. The last few minutes saw intense Barnstaple pressure and their hearts sank when Chinnor overturned the ball and ran the length of the field to see Armitage dot down his second. With Hopkin converting all but one of the tries, Chinnor went in 40-0.

Barnstaple came out blazing for the second half and some sharp play in the 41st minute saw No 8 Ben Hilton dot down for their first, and last, score of the day. Normal service was resumed somewhat bizarrely. Fatialofa’s pass was intercepted on the Barum 5m line. Chasing back, Fatialofa then intercepted a Barum pass to quickly reverse direction and over the Barnstaple line for Chinnor’s seventh try. Lamont then scorched down the tramlines for the eighth try. The conversion attempt then became the talking point of the day. Everyone, save the officials, saw the kick sail clearly between the posts to keep the score at 55-5. Time for Danny Barnes to step up. A 16 phase play from 22 to 22 saw classy passing to see Barnes in for Chinnor’s ninth. Barnes then fiercely tackled a Barum attempted run out and picked up the dislodged ball for an easy try. Another piece of gliding back play saw Barnes in for his hat trick try. On the final whistle, Hopkin found the hole he had been seeking all match for Chinnor’s twelfth and final try.

It is usually hard to draw any inferences from such a one sided match. Barnstaple appeared to be outdone by the pace of the match. When they upped the pace, at the very start of the second half, they found reward.

Chinnor , with their all enveloping defence, gave the Devon boys little breathing space to do much at all. Frank Jones’ rapid service set the backs running all day to run in nine of the tries scored on the day. Armitage, as always, was bustling and bruising but Danny Barnes hit a 15 minute purple patch in the second half to score a hat trick and do much else, besides being awarded Man of the Match.
The latter stages of the match saw players rotate through various positions with Frank Jones playing in three different places and Jamie Townsend in four! The scrum contest was even but the Chinnor pack had the advantage in all the hand to hand stuff with the strength of Hannay and Osazuwa always evident. Burns surely collected every ball put in the air and an honourable mention to Bertie Hopkin who tried all day to find a gap in the Barum defence and was finally successful just as the referee put whistle to mouth to end the day.

Teams

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Danny Barnes, Bevon Armitage, Junior Fatialofa, Henry Lamont, Bertie Hopkin, Frank Jones, Tom Price, Jon Phipps, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, CJ Osazuwa, Richard Thorpe, George Messum, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Ricky Cano, Mark Darlington, Jamie Townsend, Sam Miller, Greg Goodfellow

Barnstaple
Will Topps, Linford Brock, Jake Murphy, Ryan Carter, Ryan Lee, Steve Perry, James Bath, Mark Berry, Ash Crouch, Kevin Angell, Oli Mason, Adam Lloyd, Matt Hague, Nat Bayet, Ben Hilton

Interchanges: Rob Dugard, Paul Thomas, Tom Dunbavin, Luke Berry, Tom Clark

Scorers

Chinnor
Tries (time): Burns (2), Armitage (5, 40), Lamont (9, 49), Penalty (18), Osazuwa (26), Fatialofa (47), Barnes (60, 72, 75), Hopkin (79)
Conversions (time): Hopkin (3, 6, 19, 28, 40, 61, 73, 76)
Penalty Goals (time):

Barnstaple
Tries (time): Hilton (41)
Conversions (time):
Penalty Goals (time):

Referee: Calum Howard
Attendance: 271
Half time score: 40-0
Full time score: 76-5
Star man: Danny Barnes (Chinnor)

SOURCE: Contributed

THIS third v fourth clash was a good contest between two well matched sides with Chinnor’s defence coming out on top to post a 21-5 win for the Oxfordshire boys.

Redruth started brightly with pressure on Chinnor from the start. Weathering the storm, Chinnor, on their first prolonged visit to the Redruth 22 , set up a series of quick rucks and Lamont, coming in from the wrong wing, found a hole in the Cornish defence to go over for Chinnor’s first try, converted by Hopkin, with 13 minutes played. Now winning the territorial battle, Chinnor were awarded a stream of penalties in the Redruth 22. A number of line out catch and drives broke down until Nathan Hannay went straight through the middle of a ruck for Chinnor’s second try on the 22nd minute, converted by Hopkin. Most of the play was in the Redruth half with Redruth breakouts, often sparked by scrum half Oulten, foundering on an uncompromising home defence. Towards the end of the half, spilt ball by Redruth led to a breakout by the home side. Spectacular and rapid passing looked to result in a certain try, but, with an undefended line beckoning, the last pass was thrown forward. This last action of the half saw the home side leave the field with a 14-0 lead.

The start of the second half was all Redruth with only a ruck turnover from Chinnor’s Thorpe eventually reducing the pressure. Chinnor began to dominate and a series of driven line outs from a sequence of penalties saw Jon Phipps go over for Chinnor’s third try, Hopkin converting. Things changed dramatically in the 62nd minute when Chinnor conceded two yellow cards in two minutes with Darlington and Thorpe trying illegally to stop the Redruth juggernaut, growing in power from a series of penalty line outs. Pressure and numbers eventually told as Redruth then rumbled over for their only score of the match, Buzza touching down. With the Chinnor scrum now dominant, Chinnor tried desperately to clinch the bonus point try. Three scrum penalties in succession, 5 metres out, looked to be building for a penalty try. The Redruth scrum went down for the fourth time but the referee, Mr Thomas, ordered a reset. The ball was fumbled at the back of the scrum and the referee blew for no side.

Redruth found it difficult to penetrate the Chinnor defence and were at their best when their pack took on Chinnor at the maul, with Redruth’s Mike Grubb notably industrious. The Redruth backs had a tough time with the abrasive Chinnor tackling. Bertie Hopkin had an impressive tackle count and kicked well throughout. Barnes, in particular, showed his Chinnor colleagues how to win turnover ball. The Chinnor back row had a superb match, carrying and tackling with aplomb. Messum and Thorpe were very good but this time, Tom Burns at No 8, wins the laurels for a complete all round performance.

Teams

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Luke Hibberd, Danny Barnes, Bevon Armitage (c) Henry Lamont, Bertie Hopkin, Greg Goodfellow, Ricky Cano, Jon Phipps, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, CJ Osazuwa, Richard Thorpe, George Messum, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Mark Darlington, Andy Berry, Jamie Townsend, Alex Waddingham, Sam Angell

Redruth
Brett Rule, Dean Bonds, Neilson hired Webber, Sam Parsons, Alex Ducker, James Huxtable, Jack Oulten, Tommy Phillips, Richard Brown, Craig Williams, Luke Hattam, Shaun Buzza, Chris Fuca, Mark Grubb, Kyle Marriott

Interchanges: Adam Wright, Matt Gidlow, Luke Collins, Declan Matthews, Ethan Tyler

Scorers

Chinnor
Tries (time): Lamont (12), Hannay (22), Phipps (52)
Conversions (time): Hopkin (13, 23, 54)
Penalty Goals (time):

Redruth
Tries (time): Buzza (67)
Conversions (time):
Penalty Goals (time):
Referee: Alexander Thomas
Attendance: 296
Half time score: 14-0
Full time score: 21-5
Star man: Tom Burns (Chinnor)

SOURCE: Contributed by Bill O’Donnell

THE start of the new swimming gala season kicked off at BBAT over the weekend, September 17- 18, with Thame Swimming Club swimmers taking on the neighbouring clubs of Didcot Barramundi, Aylesbury and Bourne End.

Didcot Barramundi retained the overall winner’s trophy (1540 points), with Thame coming a respectable third (1283 points) behind Aylesbury (1402).

The club’s spokesperson, Helen Williams reported: “With the fabulous coaching support from Mark Simms, Lucy North, Karen Powell and Simon Haarburger our squad of swimmers were amazing. Congratulations to everyone for putting their heart & soul into each and every race and a special call out to all the swimmers for whom this was their first gala for Thame: Mayur Humphries, Hywel Scott, Matthew Stamp and Lexi Pluckrose. We are very proud of them all.

“Congratulations to Josh Williams for coming home with the Top Boy Award with a massive 99 points (vs the 75 points for the swimmer in 2nd place) and to Lucy Block who came 3rd in the Top Girl Award, missing out on the 2nd place by just 1 point. Awesome swimming from them both!

“Whilst each swimmer was amazing, there were a couple of notable call-outs from the weekend:

· Izzy Nelson: for showing such great spirit and determination in swimming the majority of her 400IM without her goggles, well done Izzy.

· Ella Simms: for winning Gold medals in all 8 of her races, brilliant!

· George Pearson: for being the youngest competitor to take on the 200 Fly and winning Gold!

· Hazel Randall: for swimming the 400 IM and 200 Fly for the very first time.

The following swimmers who took staggering amounts of time off the following races:

o 200 Free: Lucy Day (39 seconds); Hazel Randall (13 seconds); Tabitha Dodds (12 seconds); Murray Wakefield (14 seconds)

o 400 Free: Hazel Randall (32 seconds)

o 50 Breast: Oscar North (5 seconds)

o 100 Breast: Matthew Stamp (10 seconds)

o 200 Breast: Tabitha Dodds (13 seconds); Hazel Randall (40 seconds)

o 200 IM: Matthew Evans (33 seconds); Lucy Day (10 seconds)

o 200 Fly: Harry Block (10 seconds); Maisie Randall (13 seconds)

“The gala ended with the dramatic Canon Relay comprising of eight swimmers across different age bands each swimming 50m Freestyle – with our Thame Team ‘A’ taking the Bronze medal – so huge well done to George Pearson; George Nelson; Isabel Day; Lucy Block; Josh Williams; Elizabeth Humphreys; Ella Simms and Ben Williams.”

For the full medal tally, visit Thame Swimming Club’s website: LINK HERE

SOURCE: Contributed