Berks Bucks & Oxon Premier Division: A superb defensive display helped Gosford All Blacks gain a shock 12-7 victory over promotion-chasing Wallingford at Stratfield Brake.
Gosford, with Simon John and Mark Wingfield Digby reunited at half-back, dominated the early stages through their pack and took the lead in the lead in the 24th minute.
Centre Andy Buckingham cut loose and off-loaded to Wingfield Digby who jinked around the visitors for an unconverted try.
They home side went further ahead when winger Marc Grant skirted past his opposite number to touch down. Buckingham's conversion made it 12-0.
In the build-up to this try, the Wallingford No 8 Peter Thorns suffered a dislocated elbow and there was a long break in the game while medical attention arrived.
The second half produced some excellent open rugby from both sides, but strong tackling by Gosford's ubiqitous flanker Alex Franks and Wingfield-Digby kept out the visitors.
Even after Gosford were reduced to 14 men by the departure through injury of powerful loose head Will Machin, they managed to keep Wallingford at bay.
It looked like the second half would be scoreless until in the last move of the game when Wallingford scrum-half Gavin Hull scored wide on the right.
Captain Olli Henderson converted but it was too little, too late to prevent a defeat, which severely dents their promotion prospects.
Chipping Norton kept up their chances for second spot with a 59-7 rout of Farnham Drifters with a sparkling display.
Running the ball at every opportunity, Chippy built up a 21-7 half-time lead with tries from skipper Ian Hancock, Matty Davidson and hooker Ian Waldron, Adam Smith converting all three.
There were only two scrums in the whole of the first half, showing the quality of the handling and ball control.
After strong pressure from Farnham at the start of the second half, Chippy resumed control when an opposing prop departed injured, leading to uncontested scrums.
Chippy took full advantage of this change and added second half tries from Hancock, No 8 Jon Hickman (2), Craig Korsewski, Aaron Branagan, Ben Stowe and Aaron Tustin.
Smith converted all but two of them.
Harwell kept alive faint hopes of avoiding relegation from with a 19-5 victory away to bottom clubThatcham.
Harwell dominated the first half with the elements in their favour, but managed just two tries from No 8 Steve Dorrian and a conversion from Dave Beaven.
A lead of 12-5 was not much to defend, but a long-distance try from stand-off Andy Lee, again converted by Beaven, gave Harwell breathing space.
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