South West 1 West
Chard 27, Bideford 19

CHARD’S recent good form continued with this nail-biting win against a very competitive Bideford team, writes Glyn Hughes.

The home team were really excellent in the first half and led the visitors 19-0 at the break, but Bideford fought back well, only for Chard to see out the victory.

Chard full-back Jon Humphrey missed an early penalty attempt but it was not long before the hosts took the lead with an opportunist effort from Sijeur, who took a quick tap penalty to score under the posts. Osman converted for 7-0.

With 25 minutes gone, Chard scored the best try seen at the club this season when after some slick handling winger Ben Stead cut inside at pace and scored under the posts, with Osman again getting the extras to make it 14-0.

Chard were sloppy from the restart and allowed Bideford to pin them back deep in their 22m area for a significant time, and only some superb tackling from the team and from Jason Wright in particular kept the visitors out.

The Chard forwards were looking a lot more organised and aggressive than in recent matches, with Benn Mainwaring looking sharp in both set and loose play.

The hosts then increased their lead just before the interval when Johnson crossed in the corner for an unconverted effort and 19-0 at the break.

Chard started the second half well and increased their lead with a second try from Sijeur, who also then landed a penalty to put Chard 27 points ahead.

But, far from that being game over, Bideford now at last showed what they were made of and totally dominated the last 20 minutes.

Their forwards were tremendous, and tries from number eight Sam Griffin, flanker Alex Priest and prop Richard Norman - plus two conversions from the boot of fly-half Chris Snell - really put Chard under the cosh, and made the good crowd very nervous.

Chard, however, held out for an excellent win.

This win gives Chard’s hope of survival a little boost and it is vital they get back-to-back wins for the first time this season when they travel to play at Kingsbridge for the first time on Saturday (ko 2pm).

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Somerset 2 South
Morganians 22, Chard 2nd XV 6

CHARD 2nds gave league leaders Morganians a run for their money but were only able to manage two penalty kicks.

The good news for Chard is that that they were able to field a strong squad and hopefully their season will now go from strength to strength.

Chard 2nd XV are at home to Martock on Saturday (ko 2pm).

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Somerset 3S
Wells 3rd XV 12, Chard 3rd XV 22

CHARD 3rds made the long trip to Wells to play a rearranged fixture, writes Gavin Watts.

Mud was the word of the day. The Chard pack had difficulty finding any footing for scrums and they held out until Wells ran in two quick tries, one being converted. 

Chard finished the half camped in Wells’ 22 and were unlucky not to score, but it was 12-0 at half time.

The Chard half-time talk was based around using the mud bank to their advantage and kicking to the corners.

From the restart, Chard did exactly that, and early pressure saw Chris Doel run in a simple try.

He soon added a second after Jock MacKerrow pegged Wells back in their half with the boot.

From then on, Chard’s scrummaging allowed them to camp on Wells try line and, eventually, Josh Lovett crashed over. Prop Rich Lovelock slotted the conversion.

Chard kept the tempo up and scored a bonus-point try through Paul Watson - Lovelock kept up his 100 per cent kicking record with the extras.

Man of the match: Nathan Clapp.

On Saturday, the 3rd XV are at home to Cheddar (ko 2pm).

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Somerset Under-18s League
Chard Colts 10, Nailsea & Backwell Colts 50

THIS was a much closer game than the final scoreline suggests, with one of the league favourites from North Somerset scoring 21 points in the final 10 minutes.

Chard were not helped by having two players sent to the sin bin but, in truth, this was purely because of the players concerned being fully committed to the cause.

Chard had to play with a few younger players, and they did the club proud.

The man of the match was Luke Carslake, whose defensive tackling throughout was excellent.

Scorer Emil Szydelko was impressive whenever he had the ball and showed a great deal of potential.