Chinnor Rugby Football Club is an English

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club based in

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. They currently play in the second tier of the English league system, Champ Rugby, following their promotion from

National League 1 National One, up until 2023 known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Lea ...

having won promotion in the 2023–24 season. The club regularly runs five senior teams as well as a full youth setup from age 5 upwards. Chinnor's youth setup is widely thought of as one of the best in the country having produced top Premiership players such as

Tom Varndell Tom Varndell (born 16 September 1985) is an English rugby union player who plays on the wing as a player-coach for Bury St Edmunds. Varndell also has caps for England and England Sevens, as well as having represented other Premiership Rugby si ...

(

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

), Tom Johnson (

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an England, English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played i ...

), Dave Seymour (

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

Paul Volley Paul William Volley (born 2 November 1971 in Beckenham, Kent) is an English former rugby union player. As an open-side flanker, he played for London Wasps for 16 years. He joined as a 16-year-old from Chinnor. Volley was first called up to ...

(

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

), and Sam Jones (

Chinnor Chinnor is a large village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about southeast of Thame and close to the border with Buckinghamshire. The village is a spring line settlement on the Icknield Way below the Chiltern escarpment. Sinc ...

became the first club in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

to establish an under-19 academy.

History

Chinnor RFC was formed in 1962, by Frank Angel, Cyril Perry and Marcus Cann at the Bird in Hand pub in Chinnor, playing its first game the following year. Norman Baldwin (the sponge) was one of the first to play for Chinnor and wrote the club's first “song book”. The 1970s saw the club expand to include junior and youth teams and in 1976 the club won the Oxfordshire Cup. When the English league system started the club was placed in Bucks and Oxon Division 1 and progressed through the Southern Counties section to gain promotion to the National Leagues in 2006; the youngest club to do so. The club gained a further promotion from National League 3 South West in 2012. During the

2016–17 National League 2 South The 2016–17 National League 2 South was the eighth season (30th overall) of the fourth tier (south) of the English domestic rugby union competitions since the professionalised format of the second division was introduced. New teams to the div ...

season, the club achieved a (then) record attendance at Kingsey Road of 1,580 during a top of the table clash against

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

, a game Chinnor won 27–25. On 13 April 2024, Chinnor beat Birmingham Moseley to take the National League 1 title with a game to go. During this season, the club also smashed the previous Kingsey Road attendance with 2,270 spectators attending the top of the league clash with rivals

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Oxfordshire RFU County Cup The Oxfordshire RFU County Cup is an annual rugby union knock-out club competition organised by the Oxfordshire Rugby Football Union. It was first played during the 1970–71 season, with the inaugural winners being Oxford. It is the most impor ...

winners (5): 1977, 1999, 2002, 2010, 2011 * Bucks/Oxon 1 champions: 1994–95 * South West 2 East champions: 2000–01 * South West 1 champions (2): 2005–06, 2007–08 * Oxfordshire Cup winners (3): 2010, 2011, 2012 * National League 3 (south-east v south-west) promotion play-off winner: 2011–12 * National League 2 (north v south) promotion play-off winner: 2017–18 *

champions: 2023–24 2nd team: *

Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier A Berks, Bucks and Oxon Premier A was an English rugby union league featuring teams from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier A Honours References See also * English Rugby Union Leagues *English rugby union ...

champions: 2005–06 *

Oxfordshire RFU County Cup The Oxfordshire RFU County Cup is an annual rugby union knock-out club competition organised by the Oxfordshire Rugby Football Union. It was first played during the 1970–71 season, with the inaugural winners being Oxford. It is the most impor ...

winners (2): 2012, 2013 3rd team: * Berks/Bucks & Oxon 1 champions (2): 2005–06, 2016–17

Current standings

References

External links

* {{RFU Championship Rugby union teams in England Rugby clubs established in 1962 Rugby union clubs in Oxfordshire Thame 1962 establishments in England