Southern Counties North

Bicester 0

Stow-on-the-Wold 37

UNBEATEN Stow got a great win on the road, convincingly beating Bicester and picking up a try bonus point along the way.

A re-shuffled back line that included two forwards played their part in a dominant performance.

The Stow forwards in the loose had the upper hand but were matched in the tight. Early pressure resulted in a George Roddan penalty but several good plays couldn’t quite be converted into points.

However, it was only a matter of time before Bicester had to crack. A line-out close to the Bicester line was secured and when the drive came Craig Chapman scored.

For all Stow’s efforts they had to wait for some time until the next score. A scrum in the centre of their own half was won, the back row broke and took play into the Bicester 22, where Chapman offloaded to Henry Teare who scored close to the posts. Roddan was left with a simple conversion.

Fifteen points up at the break, Stow now had the slope and soon used it to their advantage.

Teare broke several tackles on a scything 40-metre run, before a neat offload to James Holmes and subsequently to George Plum resulted in another score.

The bonus point try came almost immediately; clever kicking from Dave Lane pinned Bicester back in their own 22 and from a five-metre scrum, the ball went blind to winger Tim Peachey for the touchdown in the corner.

Two more quick tries followed; line-out ball eventually found Holmes who broke through to score and the final try resulted from the forwards rampaging towards the Bicester line and releasing Teare for his second in front of the posts; Roddan converted.

The last 10 minutes saw Bicester show resolve and camp in the Stow 22 but despite two yellow cards for the visitors they still could not score.