Redruth v Chinnor
7th January 2017 – kick-off 2pm
Referee: Ms Sara Cox.
Assistant Referees: Ian Pengelly & Grant Mossford.
Saturday see’s the Reds take on promotion hopefuls Chinnor who are currently in joint second place and trail lead leaders Bishop’s Stortford by only 2 points. Chinnor, who recruited very heavily in the summer, started the season like a runaway train winning their first 10 games before hitting the buffers when losing narrowly away to Canterbury. A couple of draws, one surprisingly at home to Henley and another narrow defeat away to Bishop’s has seen Chinnor lose their top spot in the division. They will travel to Cornwall determined to get their promotion charge back on track. Chinnor are likely to include a couple of former Reds in Greg Goodfellow and Bertie Hopkin at half-back. Leading the try scoring this season for Chinnor is Bevon Armitage with 9.
The Reds after two disappointing defeats in early December bounced back to form with a big win away at Barnstaple in front of 100 or so travelling Redruth supporters. On Boxing Day, in front of a crowd of around 1900, the Reds turned on the style and played at a pace that Camborne found difficult to cope with and ran in 8 tries to claim the Rodda’s Milk Cup. The eagle eyed among you will have noticed former Head Coach Nigel Hambly on the sidelines. Nigel will helping out again on Saturday whilst Head Coach Marik Churcher is away with Exeter Chiefs Academy.
If this fixture follows a similar pattern to corresponding fixtures at Redruth over recent years then an unusual finish is possible. In Oct.2015 Redruth were leading by 2 points going into the last play of the game and with Chinnor trying to get field position for a drop goal to win the match, for reasons known only to himself, the Chinnor prop forward deliberately kicked the ball out of play to the delight and bemusement of Redruth supporters. In January 2014 with Redruth ahead by 6 points and into the last play of the game, the ball was passed back to the home fly-half who instead of kicking the ball dead hoofed it wildly up the field where it was gathered by a grateful Chinnor team who ran the ball back to score a try in the scoreboard corner. The Reds dismay was completed as the conversion sailed over from the touchline. So be warned anything can happen on the last play of the game in this fixture!
Let’s hope the Reds can halt the Chinnor promotion drive and close the gap to the top teams in the division. This one should be cracker.
Good luck Reds.
Match day Sponsors: Logan Rock Inn
Half-Time Collection: Breast Cancer Research.