1st XV v Cranleigh

In a thrilling encounter in difficult conditions Chipstead just came up short and it's Cranleigh who go through to the next round of the Surrey Shield.

With the strong wind behind them in the first half Cranleigh were able to use their, considerable, weight advantage in the pack to bulldoze a couple of tries early on which ultimately gave them the cushion they needed. Regularly pinning Chipstead deep into their own half Cranleigh were able to play possession rugby and suck the life from the game. On one rare entry into the oppositions half Simon Martin was able to add some points to the board from a penalty so ended the half at 15-3.

With the conditions in their favour Chipstead started to put the home team under a similar amount of pressure but with frustrating regularity were stopped from killing off the opposition by a combination of individual errors and a referee that appeared to get more and more out of his depth as his boots in the pitch !

Having had the man with the whistle in a league encounter before Christmas in a heavy defeat against Law Society where he produced a number of cards against players doing anything even slightly suspicious in the ruck area - Chipstead tried to show that they had learnt their lessons but instead the Cranleigh pack had carte-blanche to perform every known (and some particularly naughty) tricks in the book to slow, disrupt or steel the ball in any kind of breakdown situation.

When he also gave a penalty against Ryan for falling over and trying to run on without an opposition player around him the writing was on the wall. Having said all that Chipstead were still very disappointed not to get anything out of the game after an audacious chip over a ruck by Ed Bush that landed straight in to the arms of Tom Colyer to run on and score under the posts got them back in contention.

But from the kick off another dropped catch (numerous on the day) gave some breathing room and field advantage that eventually Cranleigh used to score a third try.

At 20-10 with the clock against them Chipstead managed to get some excitement generated for the crowd by taking points each time they were on offer and Si Martin's pendulum of a boot added 2 more penalties to bring his tally to 11 for the match. The game could still be there for the taking, and perhaps should of been..., but with the referee not even going to his pocket when first Alex Cooksley is punched and then secondly a very dangerous kick to Forrests Ribs - both incidents right in front of him ! perhaps he was still soaked in the Christmas spirit.

Final whistle went 20-16 and their back row still wanted to go over the top !