Rugby: Chinnor turn on the style

From the archive, first published Tuesday 11th Jan 2005.

Chinnor moved up to fourth in the South West 1 table with a thumping 48-8 victory over Cheltenham at Kingsey Road on Saturday.

The home side kept the game tight as they faced a strong wind in the first half.

And when they eventually spun the ball wide, they were rewarded as Darren Oxley put Joe Winpenny in for the first try.

Cheltenham replied with a penalty by Lewis and a well-worked try by flanker James McMahon and the home side would have happily settled for a 8-5 deficit at half-time.

However, they did much better than that.

Breaks by James Cathcart and Cameron Shaw put Chinnor close to the visitors' line and Richard Grimsdell touched down in the corner.

Then Shaw went over under the posts for Cathcart to convert and give Chinnor the perfect platform for the second half, with the elements behind them.

Further tries by Simon Matthews, Zane Winslade, Shaw and finally Oxley emphasised Chinnor's superiority, and with Cathcart landing four conversions, plus a penalty, they recorded their most emphatic win of the season.

Leon Jacobs once again put his stamp on the game with a fine all-round display at scrum half and will be missed as he returns to Stellenbosch in South Africa to resume his studies.

Oxford Harlequins were forced to change shirts because of a clash of colours with Maidenhead, and things went downhill from there as they crashed 26-3 at Horspath Road.

The home side looked rusty after a three-week break and struggled to break down a resolute Maidenhead defence.

The visitors took the lead from a penalty by full back Rob Hawkins and, despite having lock forward Booyson yellow-carded, went 6-0 ahead with another Hawkins penalty.

After pressing hard, Quins were caught cold by a breakaway try by Hammond and Hawkins's conversion gave Maidenhead a 13-0 advantage before centre Andy Noyce reduced the arrears with a penalty.

Scrum half Ruddick scored a try which Hawkins converted to make it 20-3 at the break, and Quins were not helped when skipper Jamie Cope went off with a rib injury searly in the second half.

Winger Elio Recchia moved to flanker and Charlie Mawle came on in the centre, but Maidenhead went further ahead with another Hawkins penalty.

At last Quins started to show some urgency and centre Charlie Mawle finished off a fine handling move with an unconverted try.

Yet another Hawkins penalty completed Maidenhead's scoring.

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