Hungerford battle hard for the win

STORM Arwen visited Hungerford RFC and made for some difficult conditions in which to play rugby, but they recorded a 20-7 win over Crowthorne in the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Premier.

The game started with the wind at Hungerford’s backs and it took a few minutes before the home side worked out they could capitalise on the 50:22 rule – first with Tom Allan at nine pinging one down, then fly-half Matt Stephens.

With the Hungerford lineout working well in the wind, the option for deep kicks to touch came to fruition as Gareth Morgan crashed over in a rolling maul off a five-metre lineout to score.

Henry Sandys-Lumsdaine took advantage of Crowthorne’s stretched defence to touch down in the corner.

This was soon followed by Hungerford’s No. 8, Dan Holley, slipping off a rolling maul and crashing over the try line.

Then, with Crowthorne under huge pressure in their 22, another attempt to clear their lines was charged down and

Stephens cleverly chipped the ball forwards using his footballing skills and won the subsequent chase against the Crowthorne full-back to score the home side’s fourth.

Allan struggled with the wind, and couldn’t convert any of the four tries in the first half

The second half was to be a completely different story with Crowthorne now playing downwind, but they found it difficult to capitalise against Hungerford’s solid defence

There were some fraught moments, as the home team attempted to keep a clean sheet against the gale, but Crowthorne managed to score and convert a try.

In the same division, Aldermaston secured a 15-14 win over Didcot, but Tadley lost 22-14 at home to Bletchley.

In the Berks, Buck & Oxon 1, Newbury 2nd suffered a 31-19 away defeat to Beaconsfield, while Thatcham 2nd and Hungerford 2nd both received away walk-overs.

Thatcham RFC fell to a difficult 41-18 defeat at home to High Wycombe in the Tribute Southern Counties North.