Warlingham and Chipstead served up a fiesty encounter for the large Golden Oldies day crowd assembled again to celebrate the rich history, camaraderie and friendships rugby has given us. With 130 past players enjoying a pre-match lunch attended by Surrey RFU and the Wooden Spoon Charity, a blustery first half did not disappoint.

High flying Chipstead took an early lead with a converted try but it was Warlingham who had the best of the opening stages. The Wars quickly levelled the scores with a clever score by Terrell Palmer-Simpson who ran on to a neat chip by fly half Chris Lipcynski to collect the bounce and dive under the posts to a hearty cheer from the blue and white clad stripey blazer brigade at Hamsey Green. Terry Gillam levelled the score with a straightforward conversion.

Both packs of forwards gave it everything. Man of the match and captain James Delderfield led by example ably backed by young back rowers Olly Wilson and Riley Potter, who took the battle to the spiky visitors. New father John Dowling was everywhere and tackled everything. Matt Healey, Nick Hammond, Jamie Curtis and Morgan Gillam didn’t give Chipstead a moment’s respite and the Wars were unlucky not to add to the sides score through the pack. In the backs, centres Lamont Bryan and Terry Gillam linked well and back three Mark Chatfield, Alex Glover and Palmer-Simpson returned everything Chipstead had with interest.

Fair play to Chipstead, they rode out the storm and notched two quick fire tries before the break, somewhat against the run of play.

The second half became a fractious affair with both sides losing a couple of players each to the sin bin for high tackles with the referee quick to draw his cards and having his work cut out. Warlingham replacements Callum Wand, Alex Nunn, Oli Archer and James Lynch added effort and quality to the side’s endeavours. But Chipstead found more space and were able to capitalise.

Warlingham threw the kitchen sink at Chipstead though. Tricky scrum half Lewis Hazeldine dummied and made a clean break through weak defence on the fringes, stepping the full back, leaving him clutching at thin air before being promptly whacked by another high tackle by the covering defence. A try would definitely have been scored according to the referee and a penalty try was awarded. Despite lots of effort, the home side huffed and puffed but couldn’t add to the scoreline.

Warlingham’s season has been tough with the relegation of 3 teams from Counties 2 league signalling Warlingham will rebuild from a lower division next season. Still Warlingham did not bow out without a fight and this young side will grow during the off season. They may not have won all the games but they have played every fixture this season and never given up. These values of never throwing in the towel or dropping out of competitions are basics for this club and we should all be proud of every player that pulls on the blue and white jersey. The Golden Oldies crowd show that this club will bounce back and the good times will be back.

Here’s to Warlingham Rugby Club!