JON COOK converted all nine tries and walked away with a personal haul of 33 points as Chipping Sodbury picked up their first win on the road at Old Richians.

On 15 minutes the game really lit up. From their own lineout on halfway, the Richians backs dropped the ball. Compact openside Avent scooped it up without slowing. M.Cook and Cole smashed through two rucks and the quick ball was moved left and into the hands of J.Cook who broke the line and swerved infield to score a try.

Moments later, M.Cook soared high in a lineout on Sodbury’s10m line, claiming the ball and starting it off again. From the maul the ball found Cole, who broke the line again and gave a great target for the pack. One thunderous ruck later, Jack Skelton was delivered a sweet pass to J.Cook, who demonstrated incredible acceleration and streaked in from 35 metres.

Sodbury had the throw at a lineout from the restart deep in their own half. The ball was moved by Tom Head and Skelton found J.Cook on halfway – he cut infield past five defenders, straightened up, and touched down beneath the posts for a hat-trick of tries.

The Sodbury eight then got a Richians scrum on the rack soon after the restart, allowing pocket rocket Head to sack his opposite member.

He dropped the ball and Avent picked it up at speed: with the hosts’ backs deep and ready to launch an attack of their own, his initial progress was easy. As the cover raced across in reaction to this new crisis, Avent pressed hard on the accelerator to scoot in for a try which gave the bonus point.

In the remaining 15 minutes of the half, the game became rather loose, with a period of aerial ping-pong and some hard rucking from the likes of Dave Turner, Ralph, and Barnesly.

However, it was the power and determination of Butcher that really caught the eye as he led any counter-rucking – turning over the ball and running off with it himself.

Five minutes into the second half, leaping salmon Cook brought the ball down from a lineout on Richians’ 10m line.

The centres ran a hard line and Skelton pulled the pass back to on-rushing full-back Dan Bradley, who broke two tackles on his way to the line for a magnificent first phase try.

The next try for Sodbury was scored by burly wing Dom Pullen. J.Cook pounced on a dropped pass on halfway; the mantra of ‘two passes to get away from trouble’ was adhered to, and the ball found Bradley. Bradley chipped the ball over the first two defenders and gave chase.

He tackled his man and stripped the ball in one motion, then passed to Pullen, who effortlessly ate up the remaining 25m to score.

Sodbury were left with a three-on-two, which they exploited ably with Pullen steaming in again.

However, it was Avent who was handing down the real masterclass when he ripped the ball free in a tackle 30m out from Richians’ tryline.

Two rucks later, Head seized control and touched down for an inspired solo try.

The visitors still had one more try in them before the whistle went. It was scored by Pullen, who registered the second hat-trick.