Southern Counties North

Thatcham 12

Stow 19

AGAINST the odds, Stow came away from Thatcham – who started the day three places higher in the table – with a very hard-fought win.

Once again the build-up was not ideal with late drop-outs leaving Stow with just the one replacement.

However, for once they made a great start with Ted Holmes making a well-timed interception and racing in from the halfway line virtually untouched; Jake Collett converted.

Then the onslaught came from the home side, which put the Stow scrum under enormous pressure. Somehow, though, the visiting defence held firm.

Thatcham did not help themselves with some poor handling but when Stow had the chance to clear their lines they did. At the break Stow still held their seven-point advantage.

The second half saw Thatcham straight back on the attack and a yellow for Stow captain James Holmes did not help the situation.

Almost immediately Stow were unlucky to go down to 13 men. Thatcham drove for the line only to spill the ball forward but the referee penalised Stow for hands in the ruck and a second yellow appeared.

From the resulting scrum Stow were shunted over their own line and conceded an unconverted try.

The home side now really had their tails up but Stow were clinging on. However, a break out from inside their own half resulted in a second try as Thatcham used their numbers advantage. The try was converted to give the home side a 12-7 lead.

Once Stow got back to 15 men they worked their way upfield and number eight Dan Salvage dived over in the corner to level the scores.

It was soon Thatcham’s turn to go down to 14 men, giving Stow hope they could at least preserve a precious draw.

But in the final few minutes they got another breakthrough as, with both sides hesitating, Bradley Wrench picked up the ball at a ruck on the halfway line and scampered under the posts without a hand being laid on him.

Collett converted to give a very determined Stow side a 19-12 victory.