Tom Waterfield's hat-trick of tries helped Oxford Cavaliers to a 28-14 win over Telford Raiders in the Rugby League Conference South West & Midlands Division at Marston Ferry Road.

Cavaliers suffered an early blow when they lost George Symonds with a jaw injury after ten minutes.

Raiders opened the scoring after 18 minutes when Martin Skidmore took advantage of a mix-up in the Cavaliers' defence.

Cavaliers hit back ten minutes later when half-back Shane Turner confused the Raiders defence with a grubber kick into the in-goal area, and Tom Waterfield raced through to touch down.

Turner converted from the touchline.

Four minutes later, Waterfield sidestepped a bemused defence to score from 20 yards following a scrum to make it 12-4 at half-time.

Raiders then had second row Chris Tinsley sin-binned for ten minutes for a high tackle.

But despite being down to 12 men, Telford raised their game and scored twice after the break through Pete Jones and Richard Bringau.

Matt Breese added one conversion to leave Oxford trailing 14-12.

Oxford regained the lead in the 65th minute when centre Alex Benjamin held off two defenders to slip the ball out to right winger Pat Siret, who beat two men to dive over in the corner.

Turner kicked another superb conversion from the touchline to make it 18-14.

Three minutes later, Nick Goodger found an extra gear to break 40 yards upfield before setting up Jack Briggs.

He was tackled just short, but with the defence in disarray, smart work from centre Stewart Hannah saw him sneak in by the corner flag.

Two minutes later Waterfield broke from his own half and raced clear from 60 yards to score under the posts and complete his hat-trick.