CHINNOR produced a scintillating first-half performance before having to dig deep to earn an impressive bonus-point victory at previously unbeaten Birmingham Moseley.

The visitors led 29-3 at the break, but had to hold off a brave fightback to triumph 29-22 in National League 1.

Dominance in the set-piece gave Chinnor’s backs the licence to play and they were unstoppable for 40 minutes.

Full-back Nick Smith superbly collected his own up and under kick which took him up to Moseley’s 22, with James Bourton eventually diving over – Caolan Ryan adding the extras.

Fly-half Ryan then kicked a monster 50m penalty to extend Chinnor’s lead and, despite having Kieran Goss in the sin-bin, they further stretched their lead to 22 points when Fred Tuilagi and Ryan Crowley crossed.

Moseley got off the mark with Jack Jolly’s 25th-minute penalty, but the visitors secured their four-try bonus-point just before the break when Ryan dived over and Bourton added the extras.

Unfortunately, Ryan injured himself when touching down and was forced off at half-time.

A mix of losing their captain, the error count increasing and an improved Moseley led to a different second half.

Tries from Mason Tonks, Sam McNulty and Ratu Bulumakau set up a big finish, but Chinnor did enough to seal victory.

In National 2 South, James Love’s last-minute penalty saw Henley Hawks beat Clifton 28-27 on an emotional day at Dry Leas.

It was the Oxfordshire side’s first match since the death of Dave Hyde and a minute’s applause took place beforehand, with the visitors retiring their No 5 shirt for the day.

Henley raced into a 17-3 lead, thanks to tries from Sam Lunnon and Reuben Norville and Love’s kicking, only for Clifton to cut the gap to four points by half-time.

The league leaders crossed twice soon after the restart, but Love’s penalty kept things interesting.

He added the extras after Norville touched down again, before converting from 40m with the last kick of the game.

Banbury Bulls and Oxford Harlequins maintained their 100 per cent records in South West 1 East, beating Buckingham 69-5 and Newbury Blues 30-27 respectively.

Witney came so close to their first win, losing 20-19 at home to Marlborough, while Grove went down 32-0 at Sherborne.

None of Oxfordshire’s sides got off to a winning start in Southern Counties North as Wallingford lost 28-25 at Aylesbury, Bicester were beaten 13-11 at Marlow and Gosford All Blacks went down 34-13 at Stow-on-the-Wold.