Chips trump Kings by a margin close to a Ton

After last weeks surprising win over 2nd place Old Cranleighians, we returned home to defend #fortressmeads from last years bogey team Kingston who did the double over us. Training was upped in intensity on Thursday night as we knew they would throw everything at us(quite literally). With a near perfect 18 with only a couple of regulars missing due to a educational uni visit to Sheffield and our depleted injured back row quartet of Kieran Dupe, James Mann, Billy Fowler and Adam Hollidge.

Kingston arrived as a squad hours before 1 member of the Chipstead squad had arrived and then held a team meeting in our clubhouse. We went about our warm up with the knowledge we would come out firing or do our usual let them get a head of steam before pegging them back.

With a very unusual ref who looked like he would be able to keep with play, the forwards set their stall out to dominate which they did on every level, tackling was again on point which stopped the maroon and whites building momentum and everybody stepped up to the plate. The line out functioned on a windy day someone was saying it actually counter-balanced forrests wonky throws.
This lead us to our first try where Kyle Smith emerged with the ball after a brilliant set play line out move, finally year of practicing the same plays has come off.

Bushy dad needs to jump on a boat and find him some boots he can kick in as the conversion bobbled along the floor.
The forwards provided the next try as the dominant pack called 'walkies' and we pushed them up hill in their 22 and no8 Ryan Dupe broke off and scored.

Bushys dad hadn't returned yet and the conversion was missed.
The backs were getting cold and moaning that they wanted the ball, all of them were having mother meetings in the middle of the game just to huddle togetherness to keep warm. They finally got it on Kingstons 22 and Loz Harrison Captain Happy crashed over through 3 would be tacklers.
Bushy got the conversion under the posts although I'm sure the strong Surrey breeze did more than his share of the work.

That was the end of the points for Chipstead in the first half.
Team talk and sweets courtesy of chairman Barney who is becoming a bit of a celebrity in local primary schools and his presence is all over local media at the moment. We wanted the all important bonus point, it has been said that we hadn't been enjoying our rugby this season but the evidence of smiles and jokes was plain to see, all happiness aside we were here to put on a show for our adoring fans who had braved storm Barney and finish the job before celebrating how we all know how in the bar afterwards.
#GB's
Kingston started the 2nd half brilliantly and after penalty after penalty the ref had no choice to bin no8 Dupe for an line out infringement.
With hard defence while down to 14 it was not to be and Kingston got a score.
The forwards kept the ball tight from kickoff and a resulting knock on let the boys in the coal face push over for another try with no 8 Ryan Dupe taking the plaudits again to make up for his yellow card.

the Bush/Hallam combo is really working well at the moment and the backs showed they could cut open the oppo at will. Tom Colyer at the unusual position of 13 is now another viable option.
Mitch Lock and Tom Helliwell dominated their opposite numbers as did Boris and Alex Cooksley at line out time. Liam Colgan made an outing in a very rather dubious looking pink long sleeve shirt under neath his playing shirt apparently it gets cold on the wings.

bush found his boots somewhere on the meads and nudged over a penalty from just outside the 22 and then turned provider when on the 22 again box kicked over the top of a ruck for the on chasing Club Captain Alex Cannon and evergreen Martyn Floodgate to chase on and it empahatically put over piers Robinson. His dad was waving his flag all over Chipstead into the early November moonlight. Pocket money coming you way tache.
Darren Lilley also collecting a team yellow in the dying stages but was very polite to the referee when receiving his comeuppance.
Si Martin arrived late for the game but was clearly fired up and was involved in breakdowns and tackles, there is even photographic evidence to back it up courtesy of Adam Hollidge who over seeing the win last week was promoted to chief photographer for tHe club programme. Last minute ofthe game, he tackled, bounced up with the turnover, handed off 2 players, corrected his hair then kicked the ball out to seal the win with the final whistle. Si Martin an aspiration to all on the rugby field. ( he later confessed he didn't know what the hell was going on and backed up all our claims it was a pure fluke).

So back to back wins which leads us nicely on to the next round of the national junior vase against Ellingham and Ringwood away with a 2 kickoff. Details will be confirmed Thursday night at training and there may be a few spaces on the coach for supporters.
#road2twickers #chipsfam