St Ives ‘Blown Away ‘ By Chinnor RFC (Status: Contributed)

SOUTH WEST Division 1, Saturday, December 8 – (apologies for belated publishing of match report); CHINNOR 77 pts V St. Ives 0 pts. IN view of the conditions, this was quite a remarkable scoreline. In driving wind and rain, it is reasonable to expect a dogged encounter with a couple of points separating the sides, and the team making the most of wind advantage coming out winners. Not so at Kingsey Road on Saturday, December 8.

Quite an outstanding display of handling skills saw Chinnor romp home in fine style and scoring 11 tries in the process. It is not that St Ives were a poor side, they were just blown away by fine team play allied to a few outstanding performances. Pip Seymour, now coming of age as a winger scored 3 tries, Richard Williams whose running and spotting gaps was first class and Joe Winpenny’s off-loading the ball in the tackle were top drawer. Picking out just these players does not detract for a second from the whole round team effort.
St Ives won the toss and elected to play against the wind. Chinnor took the lead in the 3rd minute with a well judged penalty form the accurate boot of James Cathcart. Another penalty from the same player, just 3 minutes later, put Chinnor on their way.Next came a try via a rolling maul from Grizz McQuire converted by Cathcart on the 12 minute mark and when he added another penalty minutes later Chinnor were 16 points to the good after 18 minutes play.
With Seymour scoring his first try, fellow winger Jaike Carter getting in on the act and skipper Matt Hutchins going over, Cathcart converting two of these and adding a penalty at the half-time whistle, Chinnor had a 38 point cushion to defend into the wind.
Initially, pick and drive was the order of the day after the interval. This set the platform for the home side to run in some sparkling tries. However this was achieved at some cost with skipper Matt Hutchins having to leave the field with a leg injury which looks like keeping him on the sidelines for several weeks. Seymour got his second try in the corner to put Chinnor further in front. Tries then came at regular intervals. Owen Gustafson broke from the middle of the field and found McQuire up in support to put Carter in for his second try, Seymour got his third with a fine individual effort and Trevor Powell finished a sweeping move to score Chinnor’s 8th try.
With the wind proving a difficult obstacle Cathcart converted just one of these. Three more tries were to come, Cathcart scoring two 2 – one where he showed a fine turn of speed to outpace the covering defence, the other when he finished a break by Richard Williams to score under the posts and then add the conversion. With Tristan Corpe on as substitute for the injured Ben Hewitt, scoring a debut try, Chinnor were home but not quite dry.
Finally, a word on the pitch. Taking into account the conditions, both before and during the game it stood up tremendously well. For this a deserved word of praise and thanks to Bob Mitchell.