Chelmsford found themselves without league opposition on Saturday due to the fact that their scheduled opponents, Old Albanians, were still involved in league action.

A friendly was therefore arranged with Southend who found themselves in the same situation.

As these teams are scheduled to meet again in a league fixture at Chelmsford next month they used the match to check out the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.

Chelmsford kicked off playing into the sun and immediately put pressure on Southend.

This resulted in Chelmsford being awarded a penalty after just a minute's play, but the kick was missed.

Chelmsford took the lead try four minutes later when, after a break from the backs, the forwards set up a driving maul enabling Kev Prior to power his way over for a try. Chelmsford maintained the rhythm and scored their second try six minutes later.

Southend took a quick lineout but Paul Hills was quick off the mark and made a good tackle on the ball catcher.

A ruck was set up and the ball was spun out to Lawrence Crispin who made a good break then on to Paul Foster and eventually to Christian O'Hare who completed the try and added the conversion.

O'Hare added his second try 17 minutes in, after Chelmsford had been awarded a scrum.

The ball was won and spun out as far as O'Hare who ran it in and again converted.

With Southend struggling to make any impact on the game, Chelmsford scored their fourth try.

They were awarded a lineout and Crispin won good ball which was passed out to the backs and flanker Chris Hoult was on the end of the line and made an excellent run to score.

The final try of the half fell to Paul Foster. This involved good play, keeping the ball in hand and eventually, Foster was able to score under the posts and leave an easy conversion for O'Hare.

Southend then scored their only points of the half with a penalty kick after 36 minutes to leave the score at 31-3.

The second half proved to be a more low key affair when maybe the effects of Christmas and the new year began to tell on some of the players.

Chelmsford scored after 20 minutes when O'Hare completed his hat trick with a superb try.

A scrum had been awarded close to the ten metres, it was passed out as far as O'Hare at fly half who ran all the way himself and was left with enough energy to convert his own try.

There was a short period of pressure when Southend were camped on the Chelmsford line and the visitors found themselves having to do some hard defending.

Southend were rewarded for this pressure when they scored a consolation try which proved to be the final score of the afternoon.

Old Albanians II beat Chelmsford II 77-0. Chelmsford III lost 19-12 to Brightlingsea and Ipswich YM II thrashed Chelmsford IV 104-0.

On Saturday Chelmsford first XV return to league action when they entertain Finchley at Coronation Park (kick off 2.15pm).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.