September 12, 2026
After Chinnor had thumped a youthful Leicester Tigers side 55-0 in their first pre-season friendly last Friday night in front of a record crowd of 3,000, today represented a different challenge against a gnarled and competitive fellow Champ side in Caldy.
The two sides are scheduled to play each other at Caldy in the third round of The Champ in early October, and a friendly between the two was perhaps a little unexpected after a bruising pre-season encounter prior to last season when a narrow victory for Chinnor at Paton Field had left both sides short of several injured players for the start of the new season !
However, there is a warm relationship between the two clubs, with both having risen through the pyramid whilst still retaining a strong community ethos.
Chinnor Update
During the week Chinnor announced that prop Andrew Darlington had rejoined the club. A former Dutch international, Darlington had made 30 appearances for the villagers between 2015 to 2017, and had subsequently played for Maidenhead, Caldy and Macclesfield.
Previous Meetings
The two sides last met in March this year, when Chinnor were victorious with a 48-36 home win in a fabulously entertaining end-to-end game.
Matches between Chinnor and Caldy have historically been close encounters. The first meetings between these two sides came in 2018/19 in National League One with Caldy snatching a 27-24 win at Chinnor early in the season, whilst Chinnor gained revenge at Paton Field with a 20-17 victory.
The two teams next faced each other in 2021/22 when Caldy kicked a last-minute penalty to grab a 27-27 home draw, then these diaries covered the return fixture in February 2022 when Caldy produced a masterclass on how to play into a gale force wind and generally strangled the life out of Chinnor with up-the-jumper rugby on their way to a 23-12 victory and onto winning promotion to the Championship.
Chinnor’s promotion to the Championship saw rivalries resumed, and in what was Chinnor’s first ever home game in the second tier, these diaries reported on a 31-17 home win. Caldy had been pressing for an equalizing score, but Chinnor broke to score with the last move of the game to give the scoreline a rather flattering look. In the return meeting, a converted try five minutes from the end gave Chinnor a 24-23 win.
Chinnor maintained their unbeaten record at Paton Field with a 38-26 victory last November, where Chinnor kicked a penalty 15 minutes from the end to deprive Caldy of a losing bonus point.
Caldy Update
Today was Caldy’s third pre-season friendly. Their first warm-up ended in a 33-40 defeat at National League One Sale FC in which 38 players had taken to the field for The Ravers, but this was followed by a 51-26 home win over Super BUCS Durham University. A mostly 2nd XI side had also played at and beaten Birkenhead Park 40-31.
Caldy had announced an extensive list of 1st and 2nd team players who were retained from last season. The only notable departure was fly-half Kieran Wilkinson moving to Doncaster Knights, whilst Lewis Barker had become first team coach at Chester, and scrum-half Tom Akehurst had returned to Wirral.
New signings included centre Harry Oliver, who scored 291 points last season in National 2 North for Macclesfield. Also joining from Macclesfield was second row Harry Harding.
Other signings by Caldy were ex-Leicester Lions and Broadstreet back row forward Cameron de Beer, England North Under 20’s prop Charlie Ford, back row forward Oliver Barker from Nottingham University, and versatile back Rhys James from Wirral.
Matchday Information
According to AA Route Planner, the journey from Caldy to Thame is 190 miles and should normally takes about three hours fifteen minutes.
The weather at the 15.00 kick-off was dry and 21 degrees and the infamous Chinnor breeze was particularly strong.
Tickets for the game were £10 for adults, £5 for 10 to 17-year-olds, whilst under 10s were allowed in free.
Chinnor named a squad of 32 players for the match with the starting XV featuring only three players who started against Leicester Tigers, flanker Will Cave, centre Tom Watson and winger Jack Metcalf. Named amongst the substitutes were two players who joined Ealing Trailfinders in the summer, ex-Nottingham prop Oscar Stott and French lock Louis Finch who was at Mont-de-Marsan last year. Also on the bench was scrum-half Zack Lewis, who was playing for Hawick last season.
Their squad include wing Kieran Goss and back-row forward George Stokes, who were missing from Leicester game, leaving only Freddie Owsley and Willie Ryan from last season’s regulars whose current whereabouts was to be confirmed.
Caldy named a squad of 30 for the fixture, with Oliver, de Beer and Harding starting.
Caldy were playing in a change kit of gold shirts with black shorts and socks whilst Chinnor were in their usual black and white hoops, with black shorts and socks.
The match was arranged for three periods of 30 minutes each.
Matchday Report
Chinnor kicked off towards the ring-road end and into the wind and the start was error-strewn, with Chinnor full-back Nick Smith dropping a high ball, scrum-half Luke Carter having a clearing kick charged down, whilst a Caldy player also spilt a high-kick.
Chinnor were awarded a penalty at the first scrum and Harry Gilson-Fox won the subsequent line-out, but when Chinnor spread the ball Scott Hall dropped it and Caldy forced a penalty. However, the early errors continued as Caldy knocked the ball forward at the line-out to hand possession to Chinnor, and from the counter-attack fly-half Nathan Chamberlain sent a low kick into touch inside the Caldy 22.
This time Caldy won their line-out and full-back Charlie Hyde sent a fabulous wind assisted kick into touch just outside the Chinnor 22. The home side’s throw went too long and Caldy hooker Matt Gallagher pounced onto the bouncing ball. The Ravers sent the ball through several pair of hands and created an overlap for winger Will Robinson to go over in the corner. Ben Parkin’s attempted conversion slid wide of the uprights but it was 0-5 after 8 minutes.
Shortly after the restart a Chinnor penalty was kicked into the Caldy 22 and the rolling maul from the line-out rumbled slowly forward until being stopped. It looked like the ball was dropped but the referee allowed play to continue, and then awarded another penalty to Chinnor, which was kicked to 5 metres. Gilson-Fox again won the line-out and this time the Chinnor rolling maul drove over the whitewash and flanker Harry Dugmore was announced as the scorer. The touchline conversion was missed so the score moved to 5-5 after 14 minutes.
A penalty for the visitors took play to inside the Chinnor 22. Martin Gerrard rose the highest to claim the line-out and with a penalty advantage Caldy launched several drives for the try-line but these were repelled. The referee took play back for the original infringement and showed a yellow card to Chinnor’s Cave.
Caldy’s rolling maul from 5 metres is legendary and after de Beer secured possession the inevitable try for Gallagher followed. Parkin added the extras to give Caldy a 12-5 lead with 19 minutes played.
However, the lead didn’t last for last as whilst Chinnor’s Smith and Caldy’s Connor Wilkinson were having a disagreement, Chinnor attacked and eventually prop Kai Owen barged over from close range to score. Chamberlain slotted over an easy conversion to bring the score to 12-12 after 21 minutes.
A case of Déjà vu followed as Caldy kicked a penalty to 5 metres and as the rolling maul set off towards the line, a huge gap appeared in the Chinnor defence, and Gallagher had an easy stroll to score, and was able to go round to under the posts. Parkin wasn’t going to miss from in front of the sticks so Caldy were back in front 19-12 with 25 minutes on the clock.
Almost straight from the restart Wilkinson made a great break and chipped ahead for Robinson to gather but as he was about to touch down Smith made a great tackle to get under the Caldy winger to hold him up. However, the referee was in a hurry to award the try and signalled the score far too early much to the bemusement to the spectators around Fatbear. Robinson may have put the ball down later, but only after the referee had already awarded the try. The conversion drifted wide so the score was now 12-24 after 27 minutes played
Caldy nearly scored again when Rhys Tudor made a scything run and then kicked ahead but Hyde was just unable to get to the ball before it went dead. Chinnor attacked from the scrum just outside their 22 and won a penalty when de Beer was off his feet at a ruck, and Chinnor centre Tom Watson surprised everyone by running from the half-way line after a quick tap to score in the corner. Chamberlain excellently converted from close to the touchline to close the gap to 19-24 at the end of the first third.
The first action of the second period saw Parkin make a good break but his attempt to find his winger was intercepted by Smith
Despite playing into the stiff wind, Caldy dominated the early stages of the second period and were camped inside the Chinnor 22. A 5-metre line-out was thrown too long but Caldy were able to keep possession, and some basketball passes in midfield enabled number 17 Monty Weatherby to score, and Parkin added the conversion. It was now 19-31 after 39 minutes.
It was starting to look grim for Chinnor and a promising attack came to a halt after a knock-on. However, the home side won a penalty at the resulting scrum, which was kicked to 10 metres. Chinnor won their ball but the rolling maul was halted. The ball found its way to centre George Wacokecoke, who side-stepped his way over to score. Chamberlain was again successful from the tee, and Chinnor were back in touching distance at 26-31 after 43 minutes.
The “you score, we score” nature of the match continued as Caldy notched their 6th try of the game. Their scrum was going backward but the referee determined this was due to something illegal by the Chinnor pack and awarded a penalty to the Ravers, which was kicked to 10 metres from the Chinnor line. Surprisingly, the Caldy rolling maul was halted, but when the scrum-half looked up, he saw his side had a three man overlap, and the ball was spread to allow Dylan Carroll to canter over to score. Parkin’s attempted conversion drifted wide so it was 26-36 with 49 minutes played.
Chinnor again looked to be struggling and a grubber kick went dead to give Caldy a scrum just outside their 22, from which they ran and the scrum-half then sent a kick bouncing into touch midway inside the Chinnor half.
Jamie Campbell won the line-out for Chinnor from which Morgan Passman made a break until being illegally stopped. The penalty was kicked to 5 metres and when Campbell again won the line-out, the Chinnor attack was stopped just short of the tryline, but a long, floated pass from the base of the ruck gave Watson an easy task for his second try of the day. With the conversion missed the score had moved to 31-36 after 56 minutes.
A scrappy period followed, but after Campbell won a line-out, a good move saw Ben Currie, one of three Chinnor players on the field wearing the number 15 at the time, cross in the corner. Chamberlain failed with the conversion, so the second period ended at 36-36.
Chinnor began the third period well with Wacokecoke making two impressive runs but failing to find a team-mate with his passes. A try was coming and Smith made a break, then kicked a grubber for James Bourton to run onto and score. Another difficult conversion was missed, but Chinnor now led for the first time in the match, 41-36 with 65 minutes played.
Chinnor followed this up with a super move which saw Currie again score out wide, and again the conversion sailed the wrong side of the posts. 46-36 after 72 minutes.
Three minutes later there was some confusion as a run from Goss down the touchline was stopped by the referee’s whistle for an earlier infringement by Chinnor, and for a few moments it looked like the referee had ended the match early. However, to ensure both sides faced the strong wind for the same amount of time, the two teams changed ends !
Caldy started the second half of the third period strongly but threw too long from a 5-metre line-out and although Chinnor gathered the loose ball they were pinged at the ruck. Caldy took a quick tap but the intended grubber kick hit Metcalf, who hadn’t been able to retreat 10 metres, and the Chinnor winger was shown a yellow card.
Despite being a man down, Chinnor ended the game the strongest. Replacement scrum-half Lewis made a high clearing kick which was dropped on the half-way line and then Caldy conceded a penalty when Chinnor gathered the loose ball. Consecutive penalties took Chinnor into the Caldy 22 and after the line-out was won, the ball went through several pair of hands before Carter was able to scamper through a gap in the Caldy defence and score under the posts. Bourton added the extras with the score moving to 53-36 with four minutes remaining.
The final minutes were uneventful and the final whistle brought an end to an enjoyable run-out for both clubs with 15 tries scored in the match. The real business starts next week-end as Chinnor host Ealing Trailfinders and Caldy are at home to Hartpury.
No comments:
Post a Comment