AFTER another roller-coaster of a weekend, it's Farnborough who must sit, wait and hope that Sandown & Shanklin do the business for Hampshire in the league play-off on April 30.

The Hurricanes will travel to London Cornish looking to become the first club from the Isle of Wight to set foot in the London leagues after they dumped the north Hampshire side into eighth place with a 25-5 win, meaning Farnborough can only avoid relegation if Sandown are successful in their play-off.

With New Milton & District trouncing Alresford 37-10, they did enough to overtake the one-time league leaders, Farnborough, and make them sweat for another three weeks over their safety.

Sandown, in poor form of late, overcame their downturn to give themselves a lift ahead of the biggest game in their history and Lee Priddle will now be asking his players for one final big effort in front of a partisan Cornish-backed crowd.

A workmanlike performance from New Milton preserved their league status as they ran in five tries at Alresford, including two for replacement Steve Ironside.

Millbrook were relieved that their defeat to Trojans did not cost them more, ending up as they did in sixth place two points ahead of Farnborough.

In a scrappy, untidy encounter Trojans won 23-14 thanks to two tries from captain Russell Clarke. However, both camps made comment with regard to the referee.

US Portsmouth closed the season in third place after an enjoyable encounter with Isle of Wight, running out 38-12 victors over the already safe Islanders.

A crowd of more than 200 viewed the final game of the season, including a Commodore from the 1974 season who came into the Services changing room before the game to "give a team talk", according to manager Burt Reynolds.

"It was an excellent day for everyone and this finish to the season, after what was a difficult start, has filled us with some confidence for next year," he added.