Southern Counties North
Stow 12 Bicester 32


AFTER last week’s disappointment ,where they were whitewashed by Aylesbury, Stow were hoping to get back on track with a morale-boosting victory while Bicester were hoping to continue their recent winning ways.  
But it did not quite work out as wished for Stow as they went down to a second defeat in successive weekends. It was also their first home loss of the campaign and saw the second-placed outfit fall further behind leaders High Wycombe who maintained their winning streak with an away victory over Milton Keynes.
Stow did not have the best of build-ups to the game with three players missing through injury and more unavailable. So it was going to be a test of  their resilience against a tough opposition who had thrashed Milton Keynes the previous week by a huge 76-0.
But Stow were well in the game until the incident which changed everything as they had a man sent off in the second-half after a melee which saw Bicester run in touchdowns and move the game  away from the home team.
Bicester started more constructively than Stow and were in front after about 20 minutes with a converted try under the posts.
And they quickly extended their lead with another converted try leaving Stow trailing at the break.
Nevertheless, a good half-time talk saw Stow come out of the blocks quickly in the second period and from the kick off the ball was collected and fed to James Holmes who raced in to score.
With their tails up, some good inter-passing and telling runs saw Holmes again collect the ball and beat two defenders to score.
The conversion of the try gave Stow a slender lead but it did not last long as Bicester stole back the initiative and scored to regain the lead.
But the red card for Stow was a turning point. With a man advantage, the visitors managed to take control of the latter part of the game and run in three further tries, one being converted giving them a deserved win on the day.
The defeat will give Stow food for thought over the Christmas break before they are next in action January 10 when they visit Drifters.