TOTTONIANS' quest to relive their victory of last season on Jersey came to an abrupt halt as they were caught in a whirlwind opening quarter-of-an-hour that kept the Channel Islanders firmly on course for promotion.

Having been on the Island for five and a half hours ahead of kick off following their 9am landing, Totts were slow out of the blocks after a dull and dank morning waiting around and conceded three tries before they knew what had hit them.

But they got into the game after the early shock but could not break down the well-drilled Jersey defence, restricting the visitors to just two Paul Goodall penalties.

And, despite playing with the stiff wind at their backs in the second half, Jersey could only boost their tally with a late try in injury time; a point that pleased coach Bob Millard.

"After the first 15 minutes, it could have been a cricket score, but all credit to our lads," said Millard, pictured. "We had hung around for hours and wandered around, so by the time we finally got to the ground, the lads were bored and it showed on the park when they hit us with the three tries. But the rest of the game was 12-6 after that and, before their last try, it was 6-5 to us.

"It showed how good our defence was throughout the match as Jersey are a very good side but we played well. However, we didn't look after the ball well enough and it was a precious commodity in this game."

Totts slip to fourth in the table, while Jersey's lead at the top stretches to six points from Old Wimbledonians, who hammered woeful Old Blues.

Winchester's miserable run goes on as they slid to their fifth consecutive defeat, going down 17-8 to local rivals Andover.

On an awful day, the county capital men became bogged down in the mud and, although the forwards played well, the backs were lacking in commitment as a 12-point haul from former skipper Marc Wilding claimed Andover's fourth win of the season.

Dan Kinsey put Winchester ahead with a penalty before Dan Pearson kicked ahead and chased down to score a try which gave the hosts a 7-3 interval lead.

Prop Adi Mort drove over from close range to put the visitors back in front, but just two minutes later, Wilding copied the move to pile over and his late penalty wrap up the win for the All Blacks, who stay two points adrift in ninth despite having won the same amount of games.

"We won the forward battle easily," commented Winchester coach Barry Bridgman, "but the guys were not patient enough and on a pretty dank day, things needed to come together fairly quickly."

Alton will be looking to get their match with Farnham replayed after the game was abandoned on 64 minutes with the home side 10-7 up.

The referee blew up with darkness falling after an Alton player had to be given ambulance treatment five minutes into the second half, holding the game up for 20 minutes.

Although the training floodlights were put on to assist, they were only on one side of the ground and, given the conditions of the day - miserable - it was getting difficult.

However, a Farnham player was dismissed for an alleged head-butt and, when the referee was asked by the home side captain to abandon the game, the official agreed without consulting the visitors, who were unable to take the subsequent, kickable penalty to tie the scores.

In London Division Four South-West, Rob Litchfield's try with just five minutes left broke Romsey's hearts as they looked to have collected their fourth successive league triumph with a hard-working victory at fellow strugglers Petersfield.

Leading 14-12 thanks to a try and three penalties, Litchfield's run-in moved the Penns Place outfit clear of the relegation zone for the time being but Romsey were far from deflated by the result and are even more confident going into a run of key fixtures.

"It was a cracking game of rugby," said a Petersfield spokesman, "played in exactly the right spirit and you had to feel sorry for Romsey, who certainly played their part in it. But we, obviously, are pleased to have picked up the win."

Marcus Coffin's Southampton side are still deep in relegation trouble following their 32-0 home mauling by Old Paulines at Test Park.