A GAME of see-saw fortunes ended in high drama as Oxford's sad decline continued with a 21-19 defeat against bottom club Bletchley in rugby's Southern Counties League.

Oxford led 7-0 after good work by prop Clarke Lawfull set up a try for fly half Richard Lee, who converted, off the post, from the touchline.

Bletchley responded immediately with a penalty and then a try to take an 8-7 half-time lead.

Oxford had a disastrous spell early in the second half, conceding two tries and a penalty to trail 21-7.

But the battling home side then staged a dramatic recovery. A short inter-passing move found Wayne Wright, who scored behind the posts. James Dargie converted with a drop kick to save time.

It was all Oxford and Lawfull finished a forwards drive to put them a conversion away from tying the score. But Lee missed the kick.

There was still time for one more move and Oxford were through when Scott Lockyer was called back after an adjudged forward pass.

Oxford Harlequins established themselves as strong promotion contenders with a rousing 46-18 victory away to previously unbeaten Buckingham.

The win was achieved despite losing centre Steve Pollard, who was stretchered off with a neck injury after ten minutes. He could be out for several weeks after suffering nerve and muscle damage to the neck.

Quins produced some devastating inter-play between backs and forwards to take a 36-3 interval lead.

Playing with the wind, they scored five first-half tries, two of them coming from Paul Browne, who also landed four conversions and penalty for a 21-point tally. Quins' other first-half tries came from in-form No 8 Paul Neal, lively scrum half Lewis Taylor and flanker Jamie Cope, all of whom found gaps in the Buckingham cover.

In the second half, the Buckingham No 8 was driven over for a try before Quins came back with the try of the game. The ball was moved through nine pairs of hands before Mark Pollard went over for his first senior team try.

Left-wing John Perkins added to Quins' try tally, before the bigger Buckingham pack scored two push-over tries in the last five minutes.

Bicester, strengthened by the return of Justin Collins, Dylan Evans and Andy Nash, gave a spirited display when winning 17-6 at Wallingford.

The only try came after ten minutes when Adrian Field sent pacy winger Steve Eden scampering towards the right-hand corner.

He was held up but the ball popped up for flanker David Evans to touch down.

Field added an easy penalty goal before Wallingford's Ben Gouldby replied in kind to make it 8-3 at half-time.

Two second-half penalties by Neil Smith extended Bicester's advantage to 14-3, before Wallingford, who had lock Jason Hollis yellow-carded for a high tackle, pulled back another penalty through Gouldby.

On the stroke of time, further pressure by the Bicester forwards enabled Smith to land his third penalty after he had missed an easier effort from only ten metres.

Chipping Norton overcame Pennanians' negative spoiling tactics to record a 25-0 victory.

Hooker Steve Wood was first to score with a bullish dash to touch down in the corner.

Strong running from centre Jason Stretch was rewarded with a try, converted by Dan Sparks, who also landed a well-struck penalty put Chippy 15-0 up at half-time.

Chippy forward pressure resulted in a try apiece for second row Sean Millard and No 8 Mark Dixon in the second half as they resisted Pennanians' attempts to turn the game from rugby to boxing.

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