by Phil Howell

CHINGFORD took on Welwyn on Saturday at Waltham Way, in a game of certainly two halves.

Welwyn who are currently bottom of the league put on a good performance for the first 10 minutes, using the strong wind to their advantage and pinning the home side deep in their 22.

But it was break from defence, originally started by Ryan Pask, then Tom Child took the perfect line before Steve Piper & Ollie Hoad set up Kurt Forward for the home sides first of seven tries. Forward converted.

Chingford for the remainder of the half put the visitors under pressure, with Guy Gavan looking to have scored the perfect try, only for the referee to be unsighted.

It was Chingford's seasonal problem, with all the hard work being done and then it was either greed or poor decision making that led to no further points being added until Mat "The Flyer" Hastings chipped ahead and out sprinted the Welwyn winger to score out wide.

Forward missed with the conversion before Welwyn added two quick penalties at the end of the first half, and the score which flattered Welwyn read Chingford 12 Welwyn 6.

The second half was all Chingford. With "Mr Versatile" Luke Campbell playing yet another position his fifth different one so far this season, Chingford scored five good tries, with firstly Kurt Forward adding a spectacular individual try breaking neatly around the blind-side, and sprinting in under the posts, that he also converted.

Next up was flying winger "Diamond" Dave Knight who out sprinted the covering defence, that once again Forward converted.

With Chingford making changes it allowed Andrew Grounds & John Paine onto the park and with only Paines second touch of the ball he sent out the perfect miss pass to send Knight in for his second of the day, that Forward also converted.

It all seemed to be coming in twos, as next to score was Hooker Mat Hastings who had a tremendous match, and he once again showed his pace to go in untouched. Forward once again kicked a difficult conversion.

The final try of the day went to John "Tuppa" Paine who showed skill and guile to stretch his legs and register Chingford's seventh try of the day, that once again Forward converted.

Forward had a tremendous day with his kicks missing just one, and adding to his 2 tries, he personally scored 22 of Chingford's 47 points.

The bad point of the day was yet more injuries to the home side with Tom Child suffering a badly broken nose, and Kieran "Dizzy" Bowling have a reoccurrence of a knee problem, that may well sideline them both for a couple of weeks.

Chingford's offensive and defensive coach Mathew Lockwood said: "It was a good open game, Welwyn did not look like the basement boys for the first 10 minutes, but ultimately Chingford's superior skill and fitness shone through.

"Welwyn only got into our half once in the second period. With Forward having such a good day, the whole team were buzzing and really we should have added a few more tries, especially in the first half.

"It was a very good team effort, but we know that next weeks away game a Ruislip will be a lot tougher, with them sitting 1 point ahead of Chingford in the league this is a real four pointer, a game we must win."