THERE was little to cheer about for Redruth’s home faithful on Saturday as they crashed to a third consecutive defeat at the Rec, writes Roger Watson.

Poor tackling contributed to their woes in a lacklustre performance against Chinnor in the National League Two clash as the away side left Cornwall with five points following a 31-7 win.

The visitors showed their confidence when they turned down two early penalty opportunities, but despite having the bulk of possession and territorial dominance it took them 23 minutes to open the scoring when James Tyas finished a well worked move from a five metre scrum.

Full-back George Blewett went on a solo run two minutes later and beat several defenders and touch down for Edward Keohane to add the extras.

With their forwards setting a strong platform, Chinnor always looked dangerous with the ball in hand whilst all too often the Reds’ defenders seemed unable to make the necessary telling tackles.

The hosts came close to scoring when Lewis Vinnicombe broke down the right wing and linked well with Chris Fuca and John Stevens, but the rest of the support was too slow arriving to finish it off.

Chinnor stretched their lead just before the break when Alfie To’Oala had a simple run in, converted by Keohane.

Playing down the slope with the wind advantage, Redruth enjoyed more territory at the start of the second period with Greg Goodfellow’s sniping runs opening up the Chinnor defence only to be undone by lack of support.

When the hosts did manage to set up attacking positions they were thwarted by a lack of accuracy and spilt the ball.

On the hour mark, the visitors secured the bonus point through a George Grose try.

A perfectly weighted grubber kick by Murray Westren gave Sam Parsons the touch down for a late consolation try for the Reds, converted by Westren but it was Chinnor who had the final word when Christian Osberg drove over from a line-out for Keohane to convert.

The Reds travel to Gloucestershire on Saturday to play relegation strugglers Lydney, where they will be keen to get back on track and where a win would see the home side relegated.

REDRUTH: 15 Rule (Hosking 61), 14 Vinnicombe (Bowden 53), 13 Webber, 12 Parsons, 11 Wedlake, 10 Westren, 9 Goodfellow (Rule 75); 1 Drew (Southworth 53), 2 Brown, 3 Williams (Drew 64), 4 Howe (Fuca 64), 5 Collins (Prisk 58), 6 Fuca (c, Hambly 58), 7 Stevens, 8 Marriot.

TRY: Parsons (74).

CON: Westren.