CHINNOR produced a promising performance in their opening pre-season fixture played under the sweltering August sun.

Hosts Carmarthen Quins may have scored a match-winning try in the last play to seal a 26-19 victory, but we should not feel too disheartened by the result.

Despite the temperature being above 30 degrees, our Men’s First XV put in a strong shift as they build towards the 2022/23 National 1 season.

Quins’ pitch is set in the quaint surroundings of Carmarthen Park in the middle of a velodrome. The pitch is a little shorter and narrower than most we frequently visit, but the players would have been pleased to have seen a smaller track on another relentlessly hot day.

Our scrum and maul looked strong early on, and we deservedly opened the scoring on 11 minutes through a fabulous team try finished off by fly-half Tom Price. Full-back Nick Smith brilliantly collected a high ball and sent right-wing Jason Worrall galloping over half-way. Price’s fine flat pass then put lock Conor Brockschmidt through a gap, before centre Sam Yawayawa and left-wing Dean Hammond showed nice hands to release Price out wide for an unconverted score.

Quins hit back through scrum-half Rhodri Davies – fly-half Steff Marshall converting – but it was Chinnor who led 12-7 at the break as Yawayawa ran a fine line off the back of a lineout to dive over from 20m. Price stepped up to convert as we would have headed into the interval pretty happy with the opening 40 minutes.

Just a couple of moments after the restart, though, and Quins were level again through replacement tighthead prop Ben Leung.

Both sides had pretty much emptied their benches by now, and we began to enjoy the majority of the territory as we looked to be controlling proceedings as we had done in the opening quarter, with left-wing Josh Hodson in particular troubling the hosts.

We deservedly took the lead for a third time just after the hour mark when scrum-half Greg Goodfellow drove over from close range after No 8 Andy Berry had been stopped just short – fly-half Will Kelly adding the extras.

However, the hosts finished the stronger and, after levelling the match at 19-19, Griffiths scored in the corner to win the game, with Luke Davies converting for good measure.

Next up for our Men’s First XV is a home pre-season fixture against National 2 South side Blackheath next Saturday, which follows the Lauren Cyster Megabowl Trophy match between Lauren’s XV and Blackheath 2nd (1pm kick-off).

The latter is all set to be a joyous memorial fixture which is raising funds for the Oncology Ward at the Churchill Hospital which provided exceptional care for our head physio Lauren during 2018.

Entry is free, with donations collected on the gate from 12-2pm. The pre-season friendly against Blackheath will follow at 3pm, with entry being £5 from 2pm.

Chinnor (Starting XV): Smith, Worrall, Grose, Yawayawa, Hammond, Price, Carter, Harewood, Marshall, McNulty, Down, Brockschmidt, North, Heathman, Ryan.

Reps: Berry, Blakemore, Cave, Darlington, Gilbert, Goodfellow, Goss, Hodson, Kelly, Lavin, Lines, Turrisi, Wilkinson.