Chingford 11
Civil Service 12
(London Two North) CHINGFORD who were sitting third in the table at the start of the day took on Civil Service who were a point and one place behind.

The returning Neil Carlsson was the first to register points when he kicked a penalty to give Chingford a 3-0 lead after 23 minutes in what was proving to be a tight contest.

The Waltham Way club extended their lead before the break, when Danny Ashton collected the ball from the feet of Guy Gavan and danced his way past defender after defender before diving over to record a brilliant individual try.

The conversion was missed but it was so far so good as Chingford went in 8-0 up at the interval.

Following the restart Civil Service, making a change to their back-row, came out firing and they were soon rewarded with a penalty that cut the lead to five points.

The away side were again on the attack from the restart and were rewarded with another penalty that they easily slotted over to make it 8-6.

Home skipper John Williams and a Service player were then sent to the sin-bin after a brief spell of fisticuffs, and it was during this period that the visitors went in front for the first time with another well-taken penalty.

With both teams back to full complement, Chingford were penalised again, and the penalty was kicked and the lead stretched to four points.

From here Chingford's coach John Williams Senior, rang the changes which led to a break upfield and the awarding of a second penalty to the hosts that Henry Bond converted to move his side to within a point at 11-12.

Chingford tried hard but unfortunately it was not to be, and Civil Service were able to leapfrog the hosts in the table as a result.

Skipper Williams said: "I was annoyed at the final score because we matched them in every part of the game, but gave away far too many penalties. We also need to be a lot more clinical in attack if we are to stay in the promotion race."