Chinnor Mini Rugby Reports – Contributed
CHINNOR v Chipping Norton at home, Sunday, Dec 17.
This Sunday saw a beautiful sunny morning for Chipping Norton?s visit to Chinnor RFC. The frost was soon forgotten as the Under 12 B team played first. They started slowly as seems to be the norm this season and Chipping Norton took advantage by scoring four tries. However, all was not lost as Tom Lidington scored a superb individual try lifting the Chinnor squad?s spirits for the second match. Final Score 5-20.
The Under 12’s, ‘A’s match got off to a cracking start as prop Guy Carter powered over to score immediately after a great pass from Ross Bunsell. This was quickly followed by a try from Ollie Wingfield after some lovely passing from the whole team. Lewis Aitken scored soon after and then Connor Green ran over to score after his own great take. Guy Carter went on to score again after powering over after a penalty on the 5 metre line.
The As finished the match off with one more try from lovely passing scored this time by Ross Bunsell. All in all the boys performed brilliantly in this game and this set them up for their final match of the morning. The final score was 30-0 to Chinnor.
A MIXED team played a by now admittedly tired Chipping Norton team and Nick Barker had quickly scored four (yes, four) tries. Ollie Wingfield added to this with another, but Chipping Norton managed to raise their game and score two tries (one from Chinnor old boy George Davis!) in the final minutes of the morning?s rugby. The final score was 25-10 and the Under 12s can be satisfied with a good morning?s work!
Strong forward pressure from Matthew Smith, Greg Alvey, Iestyn James and Aaron Milburn, supported by cracking tackles from Thomas Strathdee, Charlie Krabbe and Charlie Proctor and solid support from Andrew Kay, Liam Evans, George Kent and James Millett meant that Chinnor As continued their unbroken record of conceding no tries when they played Chipping Norton on Sunday. Any weakness shown by the opposition was ruthlessly capitalised upon, and the players deserve to be very proud of their performance. In the first match, tries were scored by Thomas, Liam, Matthew and James ? final score 20 ? 0. Tries in the second match were scored by Iestyn (2), Matthew, Thomas, Charlie K and James.
Teamwork was the word of the day when Chinnor B1s got on the pitch against Chippy. Charlie Morris, Tomas White, Ben Chapman and Ollie Bevan bulldozed their way through the opposition, giving Harry Lowe, Chris Wright and Harry Stansfield the chance to show off their superb ball skills. Finn Tapping and Henry Leggett gave the daily tackle demonstration, and Jack Gibbins and Sam Edwards stretched their legs in some superb runs. The pressure proved too much for Chipping Norton who lost both matches 20 – 0. Tries in the first match were by Charlie(2), Harry and Jack, and in the second by Harry, Tomas, Finn and Charlie.
Due to lack of numbers with Chipping Norton, Harvey Goddard and Richard Hanlon donned the red and black for the first match and Theo Keeping and Thomas Bellars did sterling duty in the second. Their efforts, however, could not undermine the team spirit shown (variously) by Theo, Chris Hopgood, Thomas, Cameron Matthews, Callum Wright, Adam Pipkin, Sam Hook, Jake O?Neill, Joseph Lynch, Richard and Harvey. Sam Hook, in his first match with Chinnor, was cruelly robbed of the first try of the match because of an overzealous ref and a badly placed dead ball line. The first match ended in a hard fought 15 ? 15 draw, with tries by Cameron, Adam and Thomas. By the second match, Chinnor had warmed up and, with superb tackling and forward driving, the final score of 20 ? 5 was a better indicator of effort. Tries were by Adam (2), Iestyn (ringer from another team) and Sam Hook ? finally!
