Chinnor Rugby Club

Miles

It was with a sense of confident anticipation that the Chinnor U11 B Team congregated on Beaconsfield for their annual ‘B-Tournament’. Not even the walk to the ground from our various off site/off map parking spots was enough to diminish our collective enthusiasm for building on recent successes and a good run of form. Yes, The B’s had their tails up after a particularly convincing performance in Newbury, where the boys did what they do best – playing free flowing, multi-phase rugby from ruck to wing to try line. Here was a chance to consolidate on that, to develop, to grow and, above all, to get even more fun out of the game. Oh yes, this was going to be good... the Festival programme stressed: “the emphasis is on enjoyment, and each player and team playing to the best of their ability”. What could stop us? I’ll tell you what, an official attitude which ran contrary to this ethos, that’s what.

In anticipation of a strong performance in our first game against the locals, the Chinnor boys were surprised by a quick try by Beaconsfield in the first 20 seconds. Beaconsfield did well to be so quick to get some points on the board because the rest of the game was marred by a referee who seemed to have a preference for stop-start rather then running rugby. He employed the qualities of a young special constable with a new whistle and a crowd who really ought to appreciate that he was the important one, the special one on the pitch. Beaconsfield produced another try, despite some furious tackling by Thomas Bellars at Centre and Adam “Blondelocks” on the Wing. But, any progress made by either team was rapidly brought to a halt in what became a really frustrating spectacle as the game dragged on, staccato style, until it was finally put out of its misery by a referee who was by now dubbed “the undertaker”.

Game 2 (Bicester) was a different kettle of badgers altogether, except that we managed to lose it - but not for the want of trying in a good game, where Chinnor really ought to have made more of their chances after an excellent start of multiple phases (different ref, see?). Bellars again put in a good performance as “The Enforcer” at Centre and the pack were in strong form also. Theo Keeping seemed fired up after recovering after a good raking to the thigh (and “general groinal area” as he put it) and rucked well with his mates – Ollie also performing well. It was Jack, however, tall & strong, who charged through for Chinnor’s only try of the game. Bicester made good use of their chances and ran two tries in. Good game, well played (& well ref’d, if you’re asking).

A sense of foreboding strangled fans and players alike before Game 3 (Windsor) started, as the Undertaker checked his red and yellow cards before using his shiny new whistle to summon the captains. The boys seemed genuinely down at the start of the game and Windsor ran a try in at the outset. After a good restart, with excellent rucking and clean ball down the 3’s to Adam “Blond Lightening” on the wing, we scored to level the game before “The Whistle Blower” had a chance to stymie us. A perplexing series of penalties against Chinnor, with hand signals to surpass Cornelius Lysart, enabled Windsor to progress, step-by-step, whistle-blow-by-whistle-blow towards the Chinnor line. 2-1 down at half time. Plenty of refereeing in the second half (which enabled a Windsor try after Chinnor were adjudged to have pushed too early in the scrum) ensured that Ref was the centre of attention. No wonder – his Mum was proudly watching her 14 year-old (yes, 14) ref/police the game. “He doesn’t care who he upsets”, she said to one Chinnor Dad “so long as he makes it a good game”. We wondered when he might attempt that.

For Game 4 (Richmond), it was Whistler (with Whistler’s Mother watching) who again officiated. The players looked confused and worried, the fans looked angry. But anyway, trying to be positive, we cheered as the death knell to a good game of rugby blew his ear-piercing tool to start the game. He stopped it about 9 seconds later and then did so 30 times (I kid you not) in the 14 minute game – that’s about once every 28 seconds. Not surprisingly, it was a scrappy game. We did manage a good scrum-half try by Chris White to even the scores but Richmond managed to sneak one back in the last second (about 12 seconds since the previous whistle blow). Chinnor loss, 2-1.

Game 5 (Henley), the final one, was great. Did I mention that we had a different ref? Oh, joy! Oh, sweet delight! The joys of spring returned to the Chinnor supporters who applauded “New Ref” onto the field & even the boys perked up, knackered because their small squad size prohibited much rotation. We took the lead through the second row colossus, Jack, shrugging off a seemingly irrelevant defence after good rucking & heaving by the Chinnor pack. In the backs division, however, it was yet again Tom Bellars who stood out but even he showed signs of tiredness, and slack tackling by all let two Henley tries through. Our "blonde bombshell” on the wing ran one in in response at the close of the first half. Poor, tired tackling by Chinnor in the second half allowed Henley to sneak one in but it was a good game, free flowing. Did I mention that there were only 9 referee interventions in the whole game?

Inevitably, therefore, it was with a sense of ‘thank God that’s over’ when we trudged, heads down, from the Chinnor encampment (which resembled a squatter camp compared to our posh rivals’ marquees) back to our town centre parking following a series of defeats: Five of them. Five out of five games, in fact. What a shame for the boys, who have been introduced in spades to refereeing which can kill a game. The boys will need bigging up next week – they did well against the odds but now seem to feel that slavish adherence to the letter of the law may be what it’s all about rather than, as stressed in the Festival programme, “the emphasis is on enjoyment, and each player and team playing to the best of their ability”. Not here it wasn’t.