For this season's finale, Brentwood welcomed Chingford, who they had beaten 32-15 on the opening day of the season, to a packed King George's where a large crowd had turned out to enjoy the game, sun and family fun day. With this being a league fixture, the squad size was back to 18 and Brentwood made several changes to their Cup winning team of last week; in the forwards Calvin Close returned at hooker and Terry Snooks shifted back to prop with James Killington’s return to the second row seeing James Vogel moved back to the flank and Jack Mayes rotated to the bench. In the backs Joe Gill moved to inside centre with retuning Tyler Ford his partner and Ewan May came back into the team at fullback, Charlie Parker and Will Attridge completing the substitutes.

Brentwood got the game underway down the slope and had soon won back possession and taken the game into Chingford's half. Jack Wells was prominent in the early exchanges with Ewan May also busy around the pitch, but Chingford were hitting hard in defence and getting go forward was not easy. A penalty which was prodded into the corner saw Brentwood get close to scoring after successive big carries from James Vogel, Toby Tierney and Jack Rocke and another lineout move shortly after saw Toby Tierney just dragged down short but both times Brentwood were guilty of coughing up possession at the vital moment and could not get over the whitewash.

With the first half hour of the game gone, Brentwood had had the lion’s share of both possession and territory, but the combination of Chingford’s belligerent defence and Brentwood’s own inaccuracies meant they had no points to show for it. Chingford were starting to gain ascendancy in the scrum and their maul looked very potent, the crowd were growing restless and it felt as if Chingford could continue to frustrate Brentwood they may swing the game in their favour.

Fortunately, a short water break gave Brentwood some time to regroup, and they returned to the fray with renewed vigour; Matt Whaley winning turnover ball with some destructive maul defence from Chingford's lineout. Brentwood took the ball on more directly this time with Joe Gill, Tyler Ford and Jack Mayes all carrying hard through the middle as the half backs of Tom Lucas-Roast and Jamie Cox kept the tempo high. Chingford's defence was unable to reorganise as efficiently as result and this time when the ball reached Ewan May there was a bit of broken field in front of him which he needed no invitation to take, jinking through to finally get Brentwood on the scoreboard. Jamie Cox's extras gave Brentwood a 7-0 lead.

Now seemingly back in the groove, Brentwood went again from Chingford's restart via the same direct route. As ever, Toby Tierney was on hand to get Brentwood over the gain line, ably assisted by Jack Wells and Jack Mayes with Calvin Close also providing some ballast until Brentwood had got back to within 10 of Chingford's try line. This time, Tom Lucas-Roast spotted some space on the blindside on the right, getting the ball out to Ewan May who drove through the tackle to get within 5 and also pop an offload to Colby Dobson. With the narrowest of space to work in, Colby fixed the defender and pulled a great step to wrong foot him and dart through for the try. No extras this time, 12-0.

Brentwood then added a third to round off their ten-minute pre-half-time blitz, Tom Lucas-Roast with a line break which was well supported by Jamie Cox taking Brentwood close, only for a dropped pass to deny the try. It wasn't to matter though, from the resulting scrum Tom Lucas-Roast was a nuisance and charged down the attempted clearance kick, resulting in a scrum 5 metres out to Brentwood. Brentwood's scrum was solid, and the ball was taken in through the centres before Chingford conceded a penalty. This time Brentwood opted to go for the straightforward tap to Toby Tierney who wasn't going to be stopped from that distance, Jamie Cox's conversion taking the score to 19-0 and half time as someone pondered whether Fenton's could start doing some Toby fan club merchandise...

Now playing up the slope for one last, lung burning time this season, Brentwood took the restart and Toby Tierney wasted no time in picking up where he left off, breaking straight up the middle of the pitch to get Brentwood back into Chingford's 22. Brentwood played through the phases patiently, Joe Gill and Tyler Ford adding to their already high carry count, Jack Wells linking well and Charlie Parker enjoying his entrance to the occasion with a big rumble up field. Spying a gap by the side of the ruck, Tom Lucas-Roast went for a snipe himself before releasing the ball to Jack Rocke on the short inside line to keep the momentum going. Tyler Ford took the quickly recycled ball up again before freeing his arms in the tackle to pass to Jamie Cox who had the strength to bundle over through the cover and score Brentwood's fourth. The conversion missed, 24-0.

The next restart eluded Brentwood because no one in the crowd had shouted “take the restart lads!” and this time it was Chingford’s turn to capitalise when Brentwood doubled down on the error and also conceded a penalty. The kick to the corner option was taken and with their already strong maul now having the hill in its favour too there was no stopping it, taking the score line to 24-5.

Chingford had the best of the next period, forcing Brentwood into a lot of defence but, having dug in to hold them out, Brentwood responded with two quick tries. The first of the pair was another good team effort which saw the ball spread wide quickly to Alex Wilson to take play into Chingford’s 22 after a break down the left wing. With the half backs fizzing the ball about quickly, Charlie Parker dented the defence further before Ewan May freed Jamie Cox who skipped through the last tackle to score his second, 29-5.

Brentwood’s final try was probably the pick of the bunch and one that the large crowd very much appreciated. A probing kick from Ewan May towards the top right corner forced Chingford to take the ball into touch and rewarded Brentwood with a close-range lineout. The ball was taken cleanly by James Killington and a brief maul was set before Calvin Close broke to draw in more defenders, opening some space up out wide. Space spotted, the ball was out quickly to the backs with Joe Gill waiting until the very last game of the season to pull off what I believe is his one and only kick of the campaign; a beautiful, pinpoint accurate cross-field effort straight into the welcoming arms of Alex Wilson who cantered across the try line unopposed. The conversion missed, maybe Joe should have had a crack…34-5.

To their credit, it was Chingford who were to have the final say in the game in the little time that was left; winning the ball back in Brentwood’s half and using their scrum dominance to bundle over in the corner in the last play to leave the final score as 34-10. Nonetheless, it had been a good finish to the season by Brentwood with 6 tries scored and a win adding to the already excellent atmosphere of the fun day.

After a bleak 546 days without rugby prior to this season and having won 14 of their 26 games, Brentwood finished the league solidly 7th placed which is probably a fair reflection of a campaign that has had its twists and turns; Brentwood the only team to defeat league winners Shelford (and 33-0 at that!) but also enduring some frustrating Saturday afternoons along the way. With the RFU restructuring the leagues, Brentwood are set to meet some familiar foes but also some new opponents next season and will be hoping to build on this year’s mid-table finish – look forward to seeing you all again in September to see how the team get on!