Category: Sports News

Chinnor RFC begins its defence of their 2010 title playing at home against Henley on Tuesday, March 1.
These two teams haven?t met for a few seasons so should be a very interesting evening.

Kick off is at 7.30 pm. Bar, food & banter as usual.

THAME Martial Arts Instructor, Chris Fensom, won Gold at The UK premier Jiu Jitsu Championship on Saturday, February 27.

Chris is Sensei and Founder of A1 Martial Arts Club in Thame, and has trained in Karate, Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai and Wrestling.

For information about A1 Martial Arts, visit: www.a1martialarts.co.uk

LEAGUE MATCH 22/02/11 At Home: Thame United 2, Wootton Bassett Town 2 – MATCH REPORT (Contributed)

IN an entertaining game at the ASM Stadium on Tuesday evening, visitors Wootton Bassett Town came back from behind twice to force a 2-2 draw. Given that the visitors were four league places below Thame, manager Mark West will view this result as two points lost, rather than a point gained.

United started brightly and had the better of first half possession and territory with Thame Keeper Milan Barisic mainly a spectator. The visiting keeper was on good form however and made some fine saves. Ben Connelly was a constant threat on the right wing before the visitors countered his pacey, tricky runs by allocating two men to mark him. United took the lead in injury time at the end of the first half. The ball came in from the right and Barr, with his back to the goal, tried a spectacular ?Rooney like? scissors kick, which was deflected out for a corner. Barr took the in swinging corner which eluded goalkeeper, defenders and forwards, alike before crossing the goal line. Perhaps a lucky fluke, but no more than Thame deserved.

The visitors came out fired up for the second half and in the 50th minute were awarded a free kick on their left. The ball came in high and Barisic went to collect it but the greasy ball slipped from his hands to fall at the feet of a visiting forward. Barisic then tried to reclaim it but was judged to have fouled the forward and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Sam Collier buried the resultant spot kick, giving Barisic no chance. The home side regained the lead in the 59th minute when Connelly found Stewart on the right of the area. The in-form Stewart coolly turned and hit a well placed, acutely angled, 20-yard shot pass the visiting Keeper. The visitors came back, and Barisic was forced to make an outstanding save, tipping a strong shot over the bar.

Wootton were now determined to equalise and mounted attack after attack with United forced to defend. With a minute to play, just when it looked that Thame would hold out, a long ball from the left found substitute Alex Green in space and he beat Barisic with an 8-yard shot. The scores were level when the final whistle blew; probably a fair reflection on the overall game.

Sadly, central defender Martin Brown and Ben Connelly picked up injuries and are doubtful for next Saturday?s game.

Thame United: Barisic, Newell, N. Rhodes, Saulsbury, Brown (Hunt), Cowan, Connelly (Rantle), Hayes (Jewell), Stewart, Rogers, Barr.

OVER a hundred budding young Thame cricketers have had no where to practice their skills safely since the training nets at Thame Town Cricket Club’s ground have become unusuable through wear and tear.

The club has been fund-raising for two years and has managed to raise

CHINNOR RFC Half Term Rugby Camp – 21st & 22nd February;

THE camp is a fun and safe environment aimed for either club players wanting to learn new skills or new players wanting an introduction to rugby. Players need to be aged 5-12 yrs and will be grouped accordingly.

Packed lunch, drinks, warm clothes and change of/wet weather clothes will be required.

Cost: 1 day

AS injuries pile high, Chinnor 1st XV dug deep to win a nail-biting contest against Weston-Super-Mare with a bonus point try in the dying minutes on Saturday.

Chinnor 1st XV went into this game wondering if there was more bad news to come after last week?s serious injuries to Cathcart and Serrano. Jason Bowers brought Harry Hillier into the team for his first start for the 1st XV for many months and moved his backs around to cover the gaps created as a result.

In the last meeting between these two sides, Chinnor won the game with a last minute (somewhat disputed by Weston supporters) try. It was expected that this again could be a close game.

Chinnor?s start could not have been better. From the kickoff, Matt Goode launched the ball into the heart of the Weston defence and pressure from the forwards released Ricky Hopwood to pass along the back line for Harry Hillier to touch down in the far left corner for an unconverted try after only two minutes.

Weston returned the compliment a few minutes later when pressure on the Chinnor line paid off with Paul Sprague touching down. Neither of these two tries was converted; which for once was not due to the infamous Chinnor wind as the game was played in pretty near perfect conditions.

The rest of the first half was a pretty dour affair with the forwards tending to dominate the game by locking up the ball and trying to control the run of play. Chinnor players became increasingly frustrated with around the fringe antics by Weston that were not seen by the referee. This eventually led to Joe Pickett spending 10 minutes after his frustration boiled over.

During this time, Chinnor clung on with fantastic spirit through a mixture of dogged determination, a small amount of good luck and poor decision-making by Weston. A number of times Weston could have capitalised on the extra man by running the ball wide, but chose to use their forwards.

Joe Pickett returned and a few minutes later, Sprague was over the line again after a period of pressure on the Chinnor line. His try was converted. 5 ? 12.

The influential Sprague crossed over again in the 55th minute for his 3rd try which was converted. Chinnor were now looking down a barrel of a very long gun as 5 ? 19 looked way too big of a hill to climb.

Then a series of player changes for Chinnor seemed to revitalise the team; Ed Vickers, Ed Devine & Andy Berry all came on within a few minutes of each other. Positional changes were needed with Joe Winpenny moving to hooker after Alan Cawston left the field injured and Adam Hastings moving into the backs after Harry Hillier was substituted.

It was Hastings with his direct Route 101 approach that burst through to touchdown after a period of pressure by the forwards and backs combining in a way that had been missing since the first few minutes of the game. 10 ? 19 and all of sudden a losing bonus point was looking possible with 21 minutes to go.

Crucially, the referee determined that Weston?s Sam Waterman had killed the ball once too often and he was sent to the bin with 15 minutes remaining. If ever Chinnor had an opportunity to claw back something from this game now was surely the time!

With the backs awoken from their earlier slumbers, Chinnor decided to throw the ball around and together with great combinations with the Chinnor forwards 2 sparkling tries by Harry Jackman and Pip Seymour took Chinnor into a 1 point lead with 3 minutes to go.

Now Chinnor were running the ball so confidently with Seymour having another couple of chances to cement the victory. One where he didn?t realise he was facing a forward and one pass that didn?t go to hand.

The young guns in the team played their part in this great win with Ricky Hopwood marshalling the plays from the base of the scrum/ruck/maul.

This was a game that Chinnor needed to win and they did, just! Injuries have been mounting for some time and this victory will ensure the confidence is high for the upcoming Oxfordshire Cup game against Henley on 1st March.

SOURCE: Contributed

CHINNOR U16s 41 v Henley 5 – 9Score reduced to 41-5, being score at the point a six try lead was established, for league purposes.) MATCH REPORT (Contributed)

WITH Henley enjoying a big win against Bicester last week, Chinnor Under 16s went into this game with renewed respect for their opponents. However, their worries were erased when they started the game with tremendous intensity and were ahead after less than a minute when Nic Barker scampered down the wing to touch down in the corner. Unfortunately the early elation was all erased when Rob Gascoyne suffered a serious leg injury in a tackle. We now know that Rob has a fractured fibula, which means the end of the season for him. He will be greatly missed and we wish him a speedy recovery.

The lengthy stoppage while Rob got treatment did not dent the boys’ concentration though. In an intelligent move the forwards lined up for a kick to the right following a penalty award but the dummy sent the ball left and a marvelous exchange of passes between Dom Bradbrook Taylor and Nic as they flew downfield allowed Dom to score one of the most spectacular tries we have ever scored. George Grose floated a difficult, wide conversion in the strong cross-wind to claim the extra points.

Rob’s injury did disrupt the balance of the team and meant that with Rory O Connor’s absence neither of the regular props were on the field. Guy Carter moved up and great credit must go to our improvised front row, which was further disrupted when Cam Leff had to leave the field after half time.

They all did really well throughout, and created the platform for the third and fourth tries when a big push on each occasion got the ball leading to another for Dom and a try for Cam Leff. Henley pulled one back but Chinnor scored their fifth try when Nic grabbed his second under the posts. 27 – 5 at half time.

The Under 16s have been involved in a few matches recently where they have established a big half time lead and then fallen away in the second half. Not doing this and maintaining focus was therefore the dominant theme of Rob Hill’s half time talk, and this time it proved effective. An intelligent kick over the defence by Henry Gayler led to a really well deserved try for the hard-working Cam Harvey and shortly thereafter another solid scrum led to a third try for Nic. George slotted both conversions and with the six try lead thereby established, the scoring for league purposes stopped at 41-5.

The game continued as a friendly and Chinnor were able to get all of their replacements on and although Ollie Wingfield scored a great interception try, Henley added a couple of their own which their spirited second half performance thoroughly deserved.

Apart from Rob’s injury there were many positives from today. Those who stepped up to play in the front row made a real difference with Dan Cundy having a superb
game at scrum half against a tricky customer in the yellow of Henley. George orchestrated the midfield superbly and made intelligent use of the wind with his kicking and Ollie put in some great covering tackles when Henley did threaten. The line-out lifting worked well; Dougie Haynes carried well; Tommy Evans did what Tommy does; in short, everyone played their part in a great team performance, fully reflected in the big margin of victory.

The win puts Chinnor Under 16s top of the league on 23 points, ahead of Wallingford on 20, although they do have a game in hand. There is still a way to go and a tough match away at Quins up next, but there now looks to be a good chance that the league title will come down to a straight fight between Chinnor and Wallingford in the last game on March 20. Bring it on!

RACQUETS Balls & Squash Camp – February 22 and 23. For all juniors 7-15 yrs-old; ALL WELCOME.

Time: 10am to 3pm – Call 01844 261754, or visit Racquets’ website: Link

HOME LEAGUE MATCH- 12/02/11; Thame United 0, Binfield 2; MATCH REPORT (Contributed by Bob Dixon)

THAME United ended their brief unbeaten run at the ASM Stadium on Saturday when they were defeated 0-2 by Berkshire based club Binfield. This was also the score when Thame visited Binfield in September. This was no fluke – the visitors were simply the better side.

The writing was on the wall when Thame keeper, Milan Barisic, was forced to make a good save in the opening minute of the game. The first ten minutes were fairly even, but from there on Thame were forced to defend for the remainder of the first half. The home side gave away several free kicks just outside the box but United?s man of the match Barisic was on good form and made several fine stops. The teams went in for half time with the game goalless, but the visiting keeper untested.

United started the second half better and Alex Stewart had a half chance when he got a foot to a cross from the right but the ball went high. United?s best chance came on 58 minutes when Luke Ricketts nodded the ball down to Stewart, whose hurried shot hit the post. Binfield came back and it seemed only a matter of time before they scored. Their opening goal came in the 62nd minute when Carl Davies met a long free kick at the far post to head in from close range.

The visitors continued to control the game and, with United?s wingers Ricketts and Ben Connolly closely marked, Thame chances were few. The final goal came in the 83rd minute when a cleared corner was knocked back to Ian Davies who turned and hit a 15 yard shot pass Barisic.

Thame United: Barisic, Barr, N. Rhodes, Saulsbury, Brown (Meredith), Cowan, Connelly, Braun (Jewell), Stewart, Rogers (Hayes), Ricketts

PHOTO: Thame United’s Man of the match, goalkeeper Barisic

MATCH – February 5, 2011; THAME UNITED 0 Vs Wantage Town 0; MATCH REPORT (Contributed)

IN front of over 180 spectators, United came away with a creditable draw against high-flying Wantage Town on Saturday afternoon.

As with the reverse fixture earlier in the season, the quality of the game was significantly affected by the windy weather conditions and, whilst it was the same for both sides, neither Thame nor Wantage could master the conditions to their advantage. Nevertheless, that did not detract from an attractive, attacking game of football where a draw was a fair result.

Thame opened the game brightly, with wingers Luke Ricketts and Ben Connelly causing the visiting defence problems down the left and right respectively. However, neither were able to create a goal scoring opportunity for lone striker, Alex Stewart, who was playing at the front of a new 4-5-1 formation. That said, the best opportunity fell to Stewart on 15 mins, who did well to initially control a cross from Connelly but was unlucky not to get his shot away before Stuart Cattell, the Wantage centre back, got a foot to the ball. Wantage themselves were not without their goalscoring opportunities with Barisic in the Thame goal saving well from Adam Bruce. As the first half drew to a close, both sides survived penalty appeals.

With the wind at their backs in the second half, Wantage were expected to press the Thame defence heavily and the early moments of the half suggested this would be the case with both Richie Claydon and Ellis Langford going close. However, the home side were also looking more dangerous and after 57 minutes Ricketts was unfortunate not to connect with a header from a Connelly cross. Five minutes later and the same combination saw Ricketts control a cross on the edge of the six yard box, only to see his powerful drive parried for a corner by Gareth Tucker in the Wantage goal. With the game drawing to a close, Wantage had the best opportunity to take the points when Claydon forced a fine save from Barisic and the follow-up shot from Tom Butler clipped the woodwork and went wide.

As it was, a draw was a fair result, as Thame achieved their fourth clean sheet in their last five league outings. Next visitors to the ASM Stadium are Binfield this coming Saturday (3pm kick off).

Thame United: Barisic, Barr, N.Rhodes, Saulsbury, Brown (Newell), Braun (Meredith), Cowan, Hayes, Ricketts, Stewart, Connelly