The ground looked good, the pitch nicely grassed and a very new looking side eagerly anticipated welcoming Westcliff, who just pipped us in the relegation battle last season.

Huge sadness that from the kick-off. Westcliff knocked the ball on, our new prop Nick Griffin dived on the ball and the Westcliff 7s leg buckled and broke. Nasty looking break needing an ambulance and the game being switched to the training pitch which had fortunately being marked ahead of the Bucks Cup game against Beaconsfield next Tuesday.

However, Chiltern were soon into their stride and a beautifully weighted inside pass saw new flanker Dave Francis storm through from 30 metres to score a superb unconverted try. Chilern's interpassing and support play were excellent and only indiscipline at the breakdown with the resulting penalties stemmed the Chiltern tide.

A long weaving run and try by the outstanding 10 Joe Butler saw Chiltern extend their lead but again the conversion was missed. Westcliff took advantage of the Chiltern penalty count to gain huge swathes of territory and an excellent snipe from their 9 gave them their first score which like their other kicks was converted.

The Chiltern pack were well on top in the scrums and with a little more cool thinking and not forcing the final pass would have resulted in more scores. Westcliff were steady if unspectacular but their experience of playing together paid dividends as they came back at Chiltern.

The match was played over 3 x 30 minute periods, and in the 2nd period Chiltern with numerous changes to personnel again dominated the scrums and started to force penalties from Westcliff, one of which resulted in a yellow card for their prop. Chiltern took advantage of this and a quick penalty saw new 9 Andrew Fluker dart over to extend Chiltern's lead to 15-7, try unconverted. Westcliff again took advantage of a Chiltern infringement and their flanker ran through some weak defence to score their 2nd try which they converted, 15-14.

In the 3rd period, which was a struggle for both sides as the very hot weather started to take its toll, Westcliff gained a strong foothold and a 3rd try which was again converted, for 15-21. Chiltern were still up for the fight and back they came scoring a good try by skipper Tom Grammenos which was converted by Joe Butler 22-21.

Regrettably, Chiltern could not close out the game and a last minute penalty gave the game to Westcliff 22-24. It was hard to bear as apart from the 18 penalties conceded, Chiltern were comfortably the better side. They would certainly have won had the scrums not gone uncontested with 25 minutes still to play such was their dominance. Nevertheless it was a massively encouraging start with such a new squad and still missing 4/5 senior players who were unavailable for this game.

We entertain Beaconsfield under floodlights on Tuesday, kick-off 7.30pm, which is a new departure for the club so please do come and support the boys.

Match report by Charles Owen-Conway