Saturday's familiar end of season derby between Chelmsford and Brentwood at Coronation Park was a closely contested affair.

With Chelmsford having already won promotion to Brentwood's league, the London & SE 2 North, they had a point to make and Brentwood were eager to gain revenge for earlier defeat in the NPI Cup.

The game began at a frantic pace and after four minutes, Brentwood, playing downhill, broke through the usually resolute Chelmsford defence to score.

The try fired Chelmsford into action and they went into the lead seven minutes later when they won a penalty.

Contrary to the decision their coach would have made, Chelmsford elected to run the penalty instead of opting for the kick and this proved successful as the ball was spun out to Trevor Bedding in the centre who ran in the try. Paul Foster added the conversion.

Brentwood then kicked a penalty and Chelmsford ran in two more tries through Bedding and Dom Fenton.

The second half was a quieter affair with neither team adding to their score until close on the whistle.

Chelmsford had a period of defending their own line and Brentwood scored their final points of the afternoon.

It was a fitting end to Chelmsford's successful season and puts them in the history books as the Chelmsford team with the least defeats in a season.

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