Author: Sonja Francis

Thame United 6, Launton Sports 1 – MATCH REPORT – THAME UNITED secured their second successive win on Saturday (11/10), with a convincing performance against bottom of the league, Launton Sports. Whilst the visitors will not be the strongest opposition Thame play this year, the Thame team nevertheless took their chances and played with a flair and confidence rarely seen this season.
Right-winger, Ben Connelly, had an outstanding game with four of Thame?s goals coming directly from his crosses.
The win takes Thame from 17th to 14th league position.

The first 10 minutes gave no clue to the outcome of the game as Launton Sports were the stronger of the two sides. However, Thame then began to gain the upper hand and created some good chances. On 20 minutes a Nik Rhodes header from a Matt Miller cross forced an excellent save from the visiting goalkeeper. Thame took the lead five minutes later when Connelly made a good run on the right before cutting into the penalty area where he was fouled by a visiting defender. Adam Rhodes took the penalty, which glanced off the left post on its way into the goal.

Thame?s second came a minute before the break when Mark Jones beat the offside trap and ran at goal before squaring the ball to Matt Miller for a far post tap in.

Thame goalkeeper, Ryan Bell, who had not been troubled in the first half, was forced to make a good, diving save shortly after the restart, but from there on Thame controlled the game. Their third goal came on 53 minutes when Connelly played a cross-field ball to Will Wallace who coolly sidestepped the advancing keeper before hitting the ball into an empty net. Ten minutes later Connelly ran at the defence and crossed for Mark Jones to finish from close range.

Thame?s fifth was very similar as Connelly continued the supply of quality low crosses, Matt Miller netting has second. With 15 minutes to play, Launton pulled a goal back when the ball was played to the unmarked Neil Tattersall who volleyed in from 10 yards, giving Bell no chance. Thame made it six with five minutes to play, when Connelly pulled the ball back from the by-line for substitute Tom Hoskin to net from two yards.

Thame United: Bell, Thompson, Newell (Hoskins), N Rhodes, Graves (c), Cowan, Connelly, A Rhodes, Miller (Smail), Jones, Wallace (El-Kassir)

Thame travel to unbeaten 3rd placed Binfield next Saturday (18th). Their next home game is at Wallingford on Saturday 25th October when Holyport are the visitors.

Photo: Ben Connelly

SCORE: Maidenhead United 1, v Thame United 4. THAME United?s UNDER 18 Youth team put in a fantastic performance over the weekend, in difficult conditions, to progress into the third Qualifying Round of the prestigious, FA Youth Cup by defeating Maidenhead United 4 – 1.
Within a minute of the start, Chris Brougham was fouled on the edge of the opposing team?s penalty area and from the resulting free kick Mitchell Meredith smashed the ball into the back of the net from close range.
As the game progressed Thame played the better football and it was Haitham Sherif who latched onto a precision pass from Brougham to make it two nil to Thame. Maidenhead pressed their home advantage but Thomas Hoskin & Meredith controlled the midfield to snub out any real danger before Craig Connell put Sherif through to send Thame in 3 ? 0 up at the interval.
Predictably Maidenhead came out for the second half and pressed the Thame goal and despite Ryan Bell marshalling his defence Maidenhead squeezed what turned out to be a consolation effort before Matt West broke down the right wing to send in a measured pass for hatrick hero Sherif to round off the scoring and send Thame into the next round.

Thame United squad, R Bell, R Chapman, P Blore, C Connell, J Misseldine, T Hoskin, M Meredith, R Smail, C Brougham, H Sherif, Z Wiggins, M West

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.