Unbeaten start to season continues

In a pre-season squad fixture Chipstead ran out 25-15 winners over Cranleigh after the four 20 minute quarters.

New head coach Andy Wright had to contend with only 22 travelling players against the 35 available to the Cranes who have also had a good start to their season under a new coaching setup.

Andy had hardly had time to pick up his clip board before Adam H crossed the whitewash for the opening try after an excellent passge of play from the kick-off with conversion slotted by Ed Chips took 7-0 lead. The second try following shortly afterwards from some excellent inter-passing and a forward drive.
With a number of props unavailable Andy was required to dig deep in the 2nd quarter and had to call on player coach Brian and DoR Chey to help steady the set scrum as that was the biggest area of concern with Cranleigh really putting the lighter Chipstead 8 under alot of pressure.
With the set piece dominince Cranleigh kept the ball tight and used their big runners to effective use eventually scoring after a number of phases and a crash off the back of a ruck.
A 3rd try from Chipstead from a open field counter attack kept them with a couple of scores ahead before Cranleigh from a set line-out got their big units driving through the Chipstead defence. With the final play of the half Tommy N kicked a simple penalty through the uprights for 20-10 at half time.
In comparisson of the luxury of another round of changes from the Cranes - Chipstead having lost Danny G from the 2nd row had to re-suffle with what they had but had at least managed to gain stability in the set piece. The weather worsened and in a very lucky passge of play, and a speculative kick through, led to a score when the greasy pitch led to an over-slide in defence and the ball was easily gathered by Cranleigh and dotted down although inexplicably not under the posts.
With Chipstead looking on the ropes and Cranleigh looking to gain a win over a team from the league above it was Chipstead who made the game safe with the final score of the game.
With the split of players available Coach Wright was more than happy with the result but keen to see everyone back at training this week to prepare for the final friendlies before both teams take to league action on the 23rd.