Steve Risbridger’s boot earned Bicester a 27-13 derby success over Grove that saw them pull well clear of the bottom of Southern Counties North.

Scrum half Risbridger kicked five penalties and a conversion, plus a series of fine clearances in what was a stirring team effort.

Risbridger’s first penalty put Bicester ahead after four minutes before his opposite number, Roger Sevier, replied in kind.

After another Risbridger penalty, Grove took the lead when centre Jamie Burns put fly half Chris Sandbach across on the right.

Bicester hooker Steve Barnes looped around a line-out and drove over for a fine try that Risbridger converted, while his third penalty made it 16-8 at the break.

On 58 minutes, Bicester’s Adam Spencer and Grove’s Guy Nicholl were sin-binned for late tackles.

Two minutes later, Risbridger slotted penalty No 4, and his fifth followed on 73 minutes.

Man-of-the-match Alex Warriner won a turnover to set up Bicester’s second try soon afterwards.

Skipper Anthony Lewis sped down the touchline and off-loaded for Martin Linstrom to sweep in at the corner.

Immediately from the restart, Grove wing John Gerring shimmied past two defenders to touch down wide on the right.

Chipping Norton beat Aylesbury 24-10 in a stop-start game at Greystones.

They wasted a good chance to score after Jamie Lakin had been hauled down just short of the line.

Chippy centre Tom Hall was sin-binned for killing the ball, and Aylesbury kicked the resulting penalty.

Adam Smith hit back for Chippy with a well-worked try he converted himself, and then added a penalty.

Paul Brown showed some good touches on his first start for 18 months, while Craig Korszewski was full of running after missing the past month.

But Chippy lacked cohesion and were caught napping after the break when Aylesbury scored a converted try from a tapped penalty.

A fine break from Ian Waldron put Chippy captain Jon Hickman in under the posts, with Smith converting.

The hosts struggled to find the scoring pass, but finally managed a third try when Smith, Matt Dawson and Hickman combined to set up Brindley Walker.

Smith converted, but Chippy pressure failed to yield any more scores.

Witney pulled off something of a scalp with a 20-13 victory over high-flying Milton Keynes.

Despite losing flanker Carl Campbell to illness and going behind to an early penalty, Witney appeared to have the edge.

And they were rewarded with a try from full back Carl Strutt, which stemmed from a great burst by lock Owen Fowler.

Witney lost prop Mark Serle to a nasty blood injury, but Danny Godfrey came on and did a great job at loose head.

They scored again on the half-hour when wing Phil Gouldie scampered over and James Lamb converted.

Milton Keynes’ disjointed play was illustrated when they failed to capitalise on a big overlap.

Witney captain and No 8 Jez Hicks tracked back well to stop his opposite number early in the second half.

Keynes were rebuffed by solid midfield defence from James Lamb and Aaron Tustin, but kicked a penalty to make it 12-6.

James Lamb slotted a penalty, then his twin brother Henry looped round the outside to score a try.

Keynes managed a converted try after Brad Groeblar had been sin-binned, and a further yellow card to Fowler led to a nervous finale.