Our first game of the season was a tough encounter against a well-drilled Harrow side who we had first encountered in the final of the Amersham & Chiltern 10s tournament last April. We knew it would be a physical and bruising encounter, and indeed it was. Although the score line indicates a heavy defeat the reality was that Harrow only went ahead and pulled away in the final quarter of the game when the fact that for us this was the first game of the season when it wasn't for them showed, and proved to be the difference.

Chinnor started hesitantly and were soon a try down. A missed penalty was then compounded by a second try for Harrow after a missed tackle on our left wing but a try from Ollie Wingfield, converted by Nic Barker got us onto the scoreboard. Chinnor were now in the ascendency and the forwards in particular were functioning well as a unit; the rucking and counter rucking were superb and the pressure on the Harrow defence relentless. However, we were not able to convert the pressure into points and a pass delayed too long led to a turnover in the resultant maul and a converted try on the break to give Harrow a 17-7 lead. Last season Chinnor heads might have dropped at this point but they are now made of sterner stuff. Knowing they were in the ascendency Chinnor went straight back at Harrow and added two further tries through Nic Barker and Cameron Harvey. The second of these was the pick of our tries and came after debutant Henry Gayler gathered his own chip over the defence and offloaded in the tackle to allow the score under the posts. Ollie Wingfield added the extras to give Chinnor a deserved 17-19 lead at half time.

The second half continued in the same vein and the score remained the same for a long period. Chinnor continued to dominate at the breakdown and a loss of discipline among the Harrow forwards led to a succession of penalties for offside at the breakdown but a well organised defensive line held firm and we could not find the breakthrough. Harrow added four breakaway tries late in the game to give a gloss to the score line but both sets of coaches agreed that it was a competitive game between two well matched teams. Our boys will have learnt a lot from this game and the experience will stand them in good stead for the competitive games to come.

The day was marred, however, by a bad injury to one of our players. Dougie Haynes unfortunately sustained a fractured fibula just 10 minutes into his Chinnor debut. Dougie is now sporting a plaster but is hoping to return to school tomorrow and will hopefully join us at the club on Sunday. He will have the injury assessed in a week's time to see whether surgery is required. From training we could see that Dougie will be a great asset to our team but sadly for him and us we will have to wait a little longer to see that in a match situation. Everyone at Chinnor sends their best wishes to Dougie for a speedy recovery.

After the main event a second match took place for those boys who had not had a chance to play up until then. Chinnor won this match 12-21, with two tries from Cameron Leff and one from Nic Barker. The second of Cameron's tries followed a superb arced run to outstrip the defence. Well done to the Chinnor boys participating in this second match, and thanks for the support you gave the others earlier on.

I am sure we would also like to thank Harrow for looking after us so well; there will definitely be a return fixture next season.