After a losing out in a tight game last week at Brentwood, the Chelmsford Mens 1st XV were keen to return to winning ways against a Woodford team that has struggled a little this season. Starting up the hill, Chelmsford looked the more positive side from the start and were quickly rewarded with a kickable penalty after 2 mins to go 3-0 up.

A great take and fast hands saw Ashley Toomey go over from the kick restart to score the first try of the game after just 4 minutes. Jamie Morrish added the extras to give Chelmsford a well deserved 10-0 lead. Taking advantage of the momentum, Ronan Kelly broke through the Woodford defensive line again to put Ben Cranwell through to score Chelmsford’s second try of the game under the posts. This was converted by Morrish for a 17 point lead.

Faced with increasingly dominant tackling from the Chelmsford forwards, Woodford struggled to keep possession of the ball for more than a couple of phases. Woodfords inability to keep the ball in contact led to Chelmsford’s third try with Jack Lavin picking up the ball from a Woodford knock on to run in for a simple score. Morrish converted to take the score to 24-0 after 18 minutes.

With the game seemingly won in the first quarter, a slight lapse in concentration from Chelmsford allowed Woodford to score in the corner to close the gap slightly. However, normal service was resumed shortly afterwards with 2 more tries from Chelmsford, firstly from Ash Toomey for his second and then from Joel Barker, who plucked up a glorious offload from Ronan Kelly to take Chelmsford to a 34-5 lead at half time.

Half Time Chelmsford 34 – 5 Woodford.

Hopes were high that Chelmsford would take advantage of the slope in the second half to build a big score but the arrival of the rain changed the dynamic of the game which became increasingly dominated by mistakes on both sides. Harry Moseley scored the only of the second half, coming in from deep on a superb line to make it 6 tries for Chelmsford.

Final Score Chelmsford 41 – 5 Woodford

This was a great result for the Blueboys against a side that beat them home and away last season. Next weekend the Men have a rest week while the Ladies take centre stage at Coronation Park. The Blueboys return to action on the 16th November as they host Eton Manor.