Chiltern lose to well-organised Bury St Edmunds

Regrettably a series of injuries and unavailability saw a much changed side make the journey to Bury who Chiltern beat handsomely at the beginning of the season.

A foul day with incessant rain before the kick-off left the pitch slippery and very wet, but it was Bury who adapted far better than Chiltern to the conditions. Two missed penalties and a really good try scoring opportunity for Chiltern went begging and Bury took full advantage to score three first half tries and establish a 20-0 half time lead.

Young prop Ziana Alexis suffered a back spasm and had to be replaced early on and Chiltern couldn’t come to terms with the strong, aggressive play at the breakdown by the Bury forwards. A couple of missed tackles and Bury were away and running, building an unassailable lead.

Chiltern played far better in the second half as they ran more aggressively, supported better and were far tighter in defence. Nevertheless two more tries for Bury against an excellent well worked try for Tom Shiel gave us a final score of 32-5 to Bury.

They are a good side who were worthy winners although Chiltern’s cause was not helped by the dreaded ‘prop’ jinx when the excellent Joe Winpenny, who has only just joined the club, had to go off with an arm injury. Fingers crossed it is not too serious and he will be back soon.

One excellent piece of news was that Saturday saw Gareth Wehrle make his long awaited return to the 1st XV after his severe injury nearly 12 months ago.

This Saturday Chiltern entertains Westcliff, two places lower in a very important game that Chiltern need to win. Your support will be most welcome and kick off is 2pm.

Match report by Charles Owen-Conway