Chineham 61 – Alresford 7 [ 11th October 2025]
Alresford travelled to Chineham on an unseasonably warm October afternoon for our first away game of the new season.
The away team kicked off the first half playing up the slope, with the first ten minutes being a test of strength and minds as both teams searched for an opening.
However it was Chineham who made the first breakthrough after 13 minutes, with a well worked try out wide, which sadly would prove a recurring motif throughout the afternoon. An increasingly confident home side, utilising a superb line out base and a brutal clear out technique, capitalised on the knowledge of a perceived weakness and followed this try with a further four tries, as a manful defensive performance from Alresford was to no avail.
But to the credit of the boys, we refused to give up, and just before half time, a superb kick through, collect, and blistering run from Harry Parkinson resulted in an Alresford try. The try was converted, making the score at halftime;
Chineham 33 – Alresford 7.
The physicality of the home team was now starting to make an impact as the second half started, where we continued to plug away, trying to find holes in the Chineham defence, but were punished for any mistakes with further tries from a confident and well drilled back line.
Tries were scored at regular intervals by the home team, which made the final score;
Chineham 61 – Alresford 7.
A bitterly disappointing afternoon, as our endeavours were not rewarded with points. Credit must be given to Chineham for their ruthlessness when given a try scoring opportunity, but we will play worse than that this season without the scoreboard showing this disparity between the two teams.
For me, Josh Wilkes tackled everything that moved, we lacked a little in the line out in Harry Robsons absence, and I am sure that the defence out wide is something that will be looked at this upcoming week at training
Our thanks to Chineham for the match, our best wishes for the rest of the season and we look forward to the return fixture in January.