After last weeks disappointing final minute loss away to Woodford, Chingford entertained local rivals Eton Manor at Waltham Way on Saturday. Chingford started strongly and threatened to carve Manor open in the early exchanges, but were kept out by Manor’s combative defensive efforts. Some of the aggressive tackles served to unsettle the home backs, to such an extent that they began to make a multitude of basic errors. Eventually Chingford did string a move together and winger Donagh Fitzgerald used his pace to go in out wide. With Campbell missing the conversion attempt, it did not take long for the scoreboard to move again when the same player had more luck with a simple penalty and Chingford were 8 points ahead. Manor’s Greg Anderson then narrowed the gap with a penalty and at half-time the scores were Chingford 8 Eton Manor 3. Within seconds of the restart Manor kicked another 3 points, and an upset looked possible. Especially when Anderson struck the posts with another penalty attempt that would have taken Manor 1 point ahead. Chingford then turned up the heat and the ageing opposition were starting to struggle, before the flying Irishman Fitzgerald scored his second try of the day after good work by Hollis and Lawson in the centres. Campbell added the extras and finally Chingford had some breathing space. With Knight on to replace Pask at fullback he joined the line, showed great pace to out-stretch the Manor defence to score Chingford’s final points of the day. “To say Chingford were not satisfied with today’s work would be a colossal under-statement, today we were wasteful, but credit to Manor for their tenacity. We got away with it today, but we must be more clinical in our game, the will be subsequent weeks when we won’t get away with it, so we need to be more ruthless. We butchered clear scoring chances today, and our discipline let us down at times. With more players coming to club selection will be interesting this week, but it would be nice to have settled XV, and welcome back some of the injured players, so we can keep some form of continuity. May I wish Mark and Paul Lawson all the best. Both are going back to NZ to see a sick relative, with Paul returning around Christmas. Unfortunately for Chingford Mark is off to Honk Kong after that and won’t be returning to the UK, but we wish him well and thank him for everything he has done on and off the pitch. He will be a hard man to replace” stated Chingford’s 1st XV Manager Phil Howell.