Essex Spartans 14 Chiltern Cheetahs 0 (h/t 8-0)
Chiltern faced Essex Spartans for the first time ever when they traveled to Basildon on Sunday in a game their needed to win to stand any chance of making the end of season play-off's. It would have been the first time back in the play-offs since 1997 when they lost to the Bristol Aztecs in the Final, but to do this the Cheetahs would first have to do something that no other Chiltern team has done in its 16 years of existence, and that was win on an astro pitch.
Essex kicked off and both sides exchanged punts before the Chiltern offence picked up a couple of first downs with some good running by Khaled Miah, on runs off 11, 17 & 9 yards, with Spencer Whybrow adding another 9 yards, but they failed to gain much yardage once in the Spartans half.
In the Second quarter a Chiltern fumble was recovered by the Spartans defense in Chiltern's half and soon after they scored a touchdown on Quarterback Aaron Griffiths 1 Yard sneak. The extra point kick was blocked by Chiltern's Darron Mayhew only for the ball to fall into the hands off Essex's Andrew Buckley who ran into the corner of the End zone for two points (8 - 0). Good luck was had again by Essex on the Kick-off with the Ball bouncing over the pitch to be recovered by the Spartans before a Chiltern player could get to it. The Cheetahs defense soon got the ball back with Abdul Lawal forcing a fumble recovered by Justin Day. But just as the Offence started to move the ball down field with passes to Conrad Patrick and David Fowler the half ended (8 - 0)
In the second half good work by the Cheetahs defense in stopping the Spartans running attack, and Cornerback Ben Dunmore�s interception of Griffiths, lifted the Cheetahs offence as Quarterback Deniz Karagulle completed three straight passes to Spencer Whybrow . A 15 yard run by David Fowler moved the ball further down field before a Karagulle pass was intercepted by Matthew Price.
In the 4th Quarter the ball hardly crossed into the Essex half as Spartans Joseph Norris picked off a Karagulle pass then David Fowler had another pass intercepted on Chiltern's next drive, which the Spartans offence capitalized on with a 26 yard Touchdown pass from Griffiths to wide receiver Ken Wanlass. A failed extra point attempt left the score line at 14 - 0 with less than 2 minutes left in the game. But the Spartans defense held out for the win as Chiltern still look for that first win on an artificial pitch.
Chiltern's head coach, Len Scott said that his team had shown great spirit this season to finish with a 3 - 4 - 1 record as it was a young inexperienced side that had only 4 players still on in it's squad from last year.