Wallingford 29, Amersham & Chiltern 0

Wallingford had far too much for their limited opponents at a rain-lashed Hithercroft and must now be realistic candidates for promotion from Southern Counties North.

The wet conditions meant Wallingford couldn't play their traditional running game and they took their time to adapt.

But with giant lock Mike Turner driving them on up front, the hosts turned the screw after the break.

Amersham & Chiltern battled hard, but had very little creativity and on a dry day could have been thrashed.

The visitors had the wind behind them in the first half, but were blown back by Wallingford's early assault.

Some sustained pressure ended with flanker Matt Chapman finding space to score on the right.

Handling was always going to be difficult and both sides conceded their fair share of knock-ons, but Amersham lacked the kicking game that could have got them some breathing space.

Instead in flanker Tim Bond and lock Gareth Ellis they had two powerful ball carriers, who Wallingford had to watch.

Scrum half Derek Viljoen covered well as Amersham went down the middle and Mike Turner stopped centre Neil Foster when the visitors created a chance on the right.

A second Wallingford try always looked likely and it came from a cleverly-weighted kick from fly half Pete Strang on 29 minutes.

Left wing Richard Turner, full back Henry Venners and centre Johnny Collett combined to set up hooker Tom Hill to score after he popped up in midfield.

Wallingford's right wing Nick Risk was knocked backwards by Tom Fletcher's big tackle when another try looked a possibility, but they ended the half on top.

The hosts brought on flanker Mike Chapman at the break and moved Ian Jeffrey from No 6 to No 8, and tightened up their game.

Strang used the strong wind far better than Amersham fly half Robin Crawford had and his kicking kept the visitors penned back.

Mike Turner scored a well-deserved try on 52 minutes, which Strang converted, to kill off any hope Amersham had of coming back.

What followed was rarely pretty, but it was certainly effective.

Amersham were still giving it their all up front, but they couldn't stop Wallingford's fourth try.

A well-controlled pushover effort saw skipper Kris Blaszko ground the ball on the hour mark.

Amersham captain Dan Kinsey made the odd attacking foray, but lacked support.

Try No 5 came courtesy of a break from centre Neil Bird on 66 minutes.

Bird sliced through the midfield and fed the supporting Mike Chapman, who was hauled down just short.

Jeffrey was on hand to dive over and cap a decent display for the hosts.

Wallingford: Venners, Risk (Windsor 67), Collett, Bird, R Turner, Strang, Viljoen, Gabbett (Jenkins 52), Hill, Blaszko (capt), Bailey, M Turner, Jeffrey, Ma Chapman, Lewis (Mi Chapman 40).

Referee: G Williams (Oxfordshire).

Wallingford man-of-the-match: M Turner.