Chelmsford bounced back in style from their previous week’s defeat against Enfield, to record a comprehensive eight try drubbing of near neighbours, Basildon.

Chelmsford started the stronger side and went ahead when, from a line-out, flanker Jamie Hines managed to wriggle over the line for an unconverted try to take them into a 5-0 lead. On the 15-minute mark, and following a line-out, scrum half Luke Venn made a strong break and passed the ball inside to centre Craig Wooldridge, who was on hand to score a well worked try to increase the lead to 10-0.

Simon Hoult, slipped in his attempt at the conversion and had to leave the field with a thigh strain. Tatenda Garure replaced him, with Seb Hill moving to full back.

Minutes later Basildon’s second row forward, Jim Harman was yellow carded, after a second offence for not rolling away from a ruck, and he was adjudged to have used foul language to the referee, and immediately shown a red card.

Chelmsford scored their third try when the ball went down the line and prop Phil Deschamps was on hand to touch down.

Fly half Rhys Mason converted to take Chelmsford into a 17-0 lead. With the penalty count mounting in Chelmsford’s favour, Mason slotted home a penalty to bring the score to 20-0.

Towards the end of the half, Basildon had their best spell but it was Chelmsford who scored when Guthrie Holiday ran to the opposition 22 line, before he saw full back Seb Hill in support and Hill galloped to the line to score an excellent try near the posts, duly converted by Mason to bring the score to 27-0.

Minutes before half time a loose ball was hacked on by Chelmsford’s wing Tatenda Garure and with second row Nick Sany in support, he crashed over for another well taken try, again converted by Mason to bring the half time score to 34-0.

Eddie Gooby ran the changes in the second half and brought on all his substitutes, including Jack Venn and Ben Franklin.

It took Chelmsford 12 minutes to score their sixth try when a poor clearance kick from Basildon was fielded by Guthrie Holiday and he made ground before spinning the ball along the Chelmsford back line, resulting in Tatenda Garure going over for an unconverted try.

After 20 minutes, skipper Paul Redford found himself in the sin bin, following a late tackle, but this didn’t seem to deter Chelmsford and they were rewarded with two further tries, a second from Tatenda Garure, following a break by Guthrie Holiday and a final try from Josh Clarke underneath the posts, following a quick tap penalty.

With Rhys Mason having departed with a knee injury, Joby Fischer had the chance to register 50 points with the conversion from underneath the posts, but he missed the kick.

Early indications are that Simon Hoult will be out injured until the new year.