Chinnor and Old Elthamians make no mistake

Round seven produced win number seven for the top two in National Two South as both Chinnor and the Old Elthamians continued their perfect starts to the season.

Chinnor dispatched Barnes away from home while the Old Elthamians had to recover from a slow first-half performance to see off the London Irish Wild Geese at College Meadows.

At the other end of the table, Exmouth snatched a share of the points against the Redingensians in terrible conditions while Clifton picked up a much needed victory.

Barnes 28-61 Chinnor

Chinnor’s perfect start to the season continued as they made it seven wins from seven following victory over Barnes.

Danny Barnes powered his way over for the first try after just two minutes for Chinnor before the home side went ahead thanks to two quick-fire tries from Tom O’Toole and Ciaran Smith. However, it was Chinnor who were in front at the break as a Penalty Try and a score from Junior Faitalofa gave them a 19-14 lead.

Kieran Gross galloped over before George Messum and CJ Osazuwa’s tries made it 40-14 in the second period.

Barnes then responded as O’Toole crossed and converted his second, but Messum – on his final appearance for Chinnor – grabbed his brace for the afternoon and the Black and Whites’ seventh try.

The hosts continued to battle hard and were rewarded when Jamie Collins’ try secured a bonus-point for Barnes but it was Chinnor who had the final say as Captain Bevon Armitage crossed before Tom Price wrapped up proceedings for the league leaders.

Old Elthamians 38-17 London Irish Wild Geese

The Old Elthamians fought back after a strong start by the London Irish Wild Geese to secure a club record seventh win in a row and maintain their winning start to the season.

The game was tied at 17-17 at the break after tries from Sean Cunningham and Dan Grant-Adamson as well as a penalty from Peter Hodgkinson were cancelled out by scores from Ashton Bevans-Royston and Lewis Brown with the other three points coming via the boot of Tom White.

But the OE’s flew out of the blocks at the start of the second period, scoring three times in 15 minutes to ultimately seal the win. The prolific Dom Lespierre crossed before White and Aaron Liffchak also went over to complete the victory for Gavin Lach’s side who remain second in the table.

Canterbury 22-25 Taunton Titans

Dan Frost scored a hat-trick as Taunton Titans returned to winning ways with a narrow victory over Canterbury in Kent.

Taunton led at half-time after two tries from Dan Frost and one from Nick Mason, but Oliver Best added five points from tee following Tom Rogers’ early try to reduce the visitors advantage to five at the break.

Once again Canterbury started the half the strongest and were rewarded for their sharpness as Hugh McCormack-Huston powered his way over and with Best converting, it put the home side 17-15 ahead.

Canterbury then extended their lead as Tyler Edwards crossed and with 20 minutes to go, Taunton had to dig themselves out of trouble.

Gary Kingdom began the recovery process with a penalty and the visitors were still behind in the contest until the 74th minute when Frost completed his hat-trick before Kingdom added the extras to claim the bonus-point win.

Bury St Edmunds 22-35 Redruth

Redruth secured their sixth win of the season as they ended Bury St Edmunds’ unbeaten home record with this victory at The Haberden.

Marek Churcher’s side were mostly dominant in this game, responding to Mike Mellet’s excellent try with first-half scores for Shaun Buzza, Chris Fuca, Nielson Webber and Lewis Vinnicombe.

Sam Sterling scored a second try of the match for Bury early in the second half to make it 26-12 and when Ben Turner dotted down from close range to make it 26-19, the game was well and truly back on.

Scott Lyle and James Huxtable exchanged penalties before Redruth’s fly-half landed two more kicks to give the Reds some breathing space.

But Redruth had to remain focused when Jack Oulton was show a straight red-card for a comment aimed at the referee, but they managed to hold on for the win.

Barnstaple 8-45 Bishops Stortford

Bishops Stortford made it back to back victories with a blistering seven-try hammering of Barnstaple.

The win for Bishops Stortford keeps them on the tails of the early front-runners while an injury-hit Barnstaple remain in the bottom three of National Two South.

Jimmy Rea, Tom Coleman, Steve Ball and Sean Edwards all scored in the first period for Storford, while Ryan Hutler, Oli Jones and Tom Banks crossed after the break for Andy Long’s men.

On loan Jack Childs touched down the hosts’ sole try just after half-time.

Cinderford 30-23 Henley Hawks

Cinderford secured their second consecutive win as they clinched a bonus-point victory over Henley Hawks at Dockham Road.

After being level at 13-13 just after half-time, a George Jackson try gave Henley the lead only for Cinderford to battle back to take the victory.

Ciaran Knight forced his way over before a second Harry Robinson score gave Cinderford a 25-20 lead.

Relentless pressure from Cinderford in the final 10 minutes allowed Alex Frame to score the decisive try and seal the win. Jackson slotted over another penalty three minutes from the end to earn Henley a losing bonus-point.

Clifton 33-22 Worthing Raiders

Clifton secured just their second win of the season as they claimed a much needed victory over Worthing Raiders in South Gloucestershire.

A first-half try from Alex Giltrow as well as 11 points from the boot of Bradley Barnes put the hosts 16-10 ahead at the interval with Alex Nielsen going over for the away side and Matthew McLean kicking five points.

But the home side launched a blitz of 17 unanswered points inside 13 minutes to overrun the Raiders, Ian Clark and James Newey grabbing tries while Barnes added the extras from the tee.

Worthing made the score-line more respectable in the final three minutes of this contest thanks to tries from McLean and Dan Sargent but it was too little, too late as a spirited Clifton side picked up the win.

Exmouth 7-7 Redingensians

The Redingensians were held to a draw by a valiant Exmouth side who scored a late try to avoid defeat for the first time in National Two South this season.

Exmouth suffered a heavy loss last weekend against Redruth but battled hard in torrential weather conditions to earn a share of the points against the Redingensians.

Jon Hill’s side fared much better in front of a home crowd and will have been satisfied to end a six match losing streak.

Redingensians’ scum-half Chico U’Chong opened the scoring in the first half, but it was Exmouth who looked the more likely to take the game by the scruff of the neck in the second period.

And they were rewarded for their endeavour a minute from the end as Mark Wathes touched down a converted try to claim two points for Exmouth.