South West 1

James Cathcart marked his return from a debilitating illness to score 21 points as Chinnor stormed to a 36-26 victory away to Clifton.

The tall fly half was taken ill with an ulcer before Christmas, and his contribution illustrated just how much he has been missed.

In superb conditions, Chinnor took the lead when hooker Tom Whelan broke away and touched down from a driving maul.

Clifton hit back rapidly with a try by right wing Sam Kent, which fly half John Barnes converted.

Full back Darren Oxley, taking the ball at pace, and flanker Tom Johnson - from a rolling maul - added tries for Chinnor.

Cathcart's one conversion made it 17-7, although Clifton cut the half-time deficit to three points with a soft try which they converted.

After Johnny David replaced the injury-prone Jon Brooks at centre, Cathcart opened the second half with an individual try, breaking through and running 40-metres to the line.

He followed this with a conversion and two penalties to put Chinnor 30-14 ahead and seemingly home and dry.

Clifton, however, replied with two quick tries through winger Rob Viol, one of which was converted.

It needed two more Cathcart penalties to seal Chinnor's win, which also owed much to the display of their front row.

An unfortunate clash of heads just before half-time disrupted Oxford Harlequins' bold display against leaders Reading at Horspath Road.

Quins' lock Elliott Stephenson suffered a fractured eye socket after colliding with his own prop Will Houston, and could be out for a month.

The home side were trailing only 7-6 at the time, but the resulting reshuffle allowed Reading to pull away for a flattering 29-11 victory.

Playing with a strong wind at their backs, Quins opened the scoring with a penalty by fly half Chris Penney.

Piling on the pressure, they went close to scoring tries through wingers Nathan Smith and Matt Sims, before Reading broke away to score a try by winger Dyson, which fly half James converted

Despite losing Houston and centre Charlie Maule to the sin-bin, Quins closed the gap with a penalty by Penney.

Early in the second half, Reading stretched their lead to 17-6 with unconverted tries against the run of play by flanker Rooscouw and Dyson.

With No 8 Paul Nye yellow-carded, Quins fell further behind to a converted try.

However, their perseverance was rewarded when replacement prop Paul DeLange scored a close-range try, before Reading had the final say with centre Dan Barrett going over from what looked a forward pass.