Bicester secured an important 18-7 victory over Slough to stay clear of the drop zone in Southern Counties North.

Slough scored their only try on seven minutes through centre James O’Reilly, who added the conversion.

Bicester hit back immediately when centre Adam Spencer collected Steve Risbridger’s chip kick to score.

Fly half Ross Kenny’s superb angled pass created try No 2 for pacy hooker Esava Rakacikaci.

Bicester scored again just before the break through wing Paul Leverton following a counter attack.

Risbridger’s penalty was the only score of a Bicester-dominated second half that saw Slough hooker James Flisher and fly half Robert King sin-binned.

Chipping Norton suffered late heartbreak as they lost 13-6 at Marlow.

Chippy thought they had won it with a try from Sam Townsend, but he was ruled to have been in touch.

Marlow kicked long from the 22 drop out, hacked the ball on and saw their winger score a converted try despite the touch judge saying the ball wasn’t grounded.

Chippy seemed to have an early lead through Tom Hall, but he was adjudged to have put a foot in touch.

Marlow went 6-0 up thanks to two penalties before Andy Chapman went close for Chippy.

Two quick penalties from Adam Smith levelled the match with ten minutes left to set up the dramatic finale.