Western Counties West
Chard 1st XV 24, Falmouth 21

AFTER last week’s defeat at Devonport, Chard got back to winning ways with a nail-biting win at home to Falmouth, writes Glyn Hughes.

The game did not start well for Chard, who lost the services of Polish international winger Emile Szydelko to an early injury and he was replaced by Luke Hill.

The Chard forwards started the game well and prop Nick Hyslop took a pass from scrum-half Dylan Moss on the burst and powered over for the first try after only a few minutes play. 

Charlie Roberts added the conversion points.

Minutes later, full-back Ben Stead, who would go on to have a terrific game, ran well from deep and managed to offload the ball to skipper Max Gosden, who crossed for try number two. 

Roberts again added the extras.

The play between the forwards levelled out and Falmouth were able to be much more competitive. 

This led to their backs getting more of the ball and they reduced the lead when flanker Tim Gay scored a nice try converted by skipper Justin Irons.

Irons added another penalty before half-time but this was cancelled out by a similar effort from Roberts and Chard reached half-time with a 17-10 lead.

Chard did not start the second half well and conceded a penalty early on which was again goaled by Irons to reduce Chard’s advantage to just four points.

Roberts, who had kicked well for Chard throughout, showed there was more to his game than just his right boot by scoring a wonderful try which he converted himself to put Chard 24-13 ahead.

Chard were now looking for a bonus point try but, try as they did, were unable to cross the visitors’ line again.

Irons added a penalty for Falmouth and a tense finish was guaranteed when Falmouth winger Firth went over in the corner for an unconverted try to bring his team within three points.

Chard were in no mood to lose the game, however, and the whole team who had tackled well throughout fought hard to keep their unbeaten home record.

In the final minutes, Roberts had a chance to finish things off but his perfect kicking day was spoiled when he missed a sitter.

Chard, however, deserved their win with a solid all-round performance - they have no game this weekend but are away at Wadebridge the following Saturday.