Surrey One

Old Whitgiftian 11

Chipstead 10

Chipstead made a great start with the slope advantage, but could not hold on for victory.

They were full of confidence following their 77-point mauling of Bec Old Boys the previous week.

There was an early indication, at a scrum, that the laws were to be applied strictly for this derby.

The award turned to a penalty, when OWs questioned the referee's ruling to an earlier lineout, which Chipstead gratefully slotted over by Dan Martin after just three minutes.

With ground conditions excellent, as expected on the Croham Road pitch, both teams showed their intention to play open rugby.

Playing down the slope, Chipstead opened with a strong attack, which was repulsed by solid home team defence.

There followed a period of attack and counter attack, with OWs three-quarters favouring the wide pass and Chipstead the tactical kicking approach.

After 25 minutes the visitors were awarded a scrum just inside the home half.

Wing forward and Chipstead captain Richard Cannon broke on the blind side, side-stepped the back row defence and out-paced the remaining cover to score near the posts.

As the half progressed, the penalty count grew, and having missed two opportunities to reduce the deficit, Les Todd stepped up to make the half-time score 10-3.

The second half started with both sides endeavouring to bring their threequarters into the game.

The home team started to exert superiority in the scrums and from a solid scrum some 20 meters out Nathan Taylor neatly chipped over the opposition defence for wing Quentin Keanie to snap up the convenient bounce and score in the corner.

As in the first half penalties continued and Chipstead, in particular, were found guilty of not staying on their feet or of coming in from the side.

There was an amount of frustration from the players, and the referee called the captains together and issued a general warning to cut out the infringements or yellow cards would follow.

But penalties did continue, all for technicalities and as there was no evidence of any foul play no player was sent to the sin bin.

Eventually Todd struck his second penalty to put Whits in front for the first time.

For the rest of the game OWs kept their discipline and looked the more likely scorers. Only a fumble close to the line kept them out.

Chipstead never gave up, but their efforts to run out of their own half were solidly brought to a halt.

Chipstead, short of at least one influential player, contributed to a fairly contested local derby.

Another one, at home to Old Walcountians, starts at 2.15pm at The Meads on Saturday as both sides try to make the most of their last game before Christmas.