Effingham & Leatherhead 18, Winchester 14

THIS was not a day that Winchester will remember at all fondly.

Not only did they lose their proud unbeaten league record at Effingham last Saturday, they didn't do themselves justice either. That hurt.

Missing the considerable presence of Adie Mort and Campbell Ettinger, through unavailability, the Winchester scrummage began to creak from an early stage. And manfully though the back row fought to keep the ship afloat, they never quite managed it.

The result is a setback to Winchester's promotion hopes, but by no means a terminal one. In a losing cause, the visitors' backs gave as sharp and elusive a performance as any to date, with Ed Ravenhill outstanding. All the early possession, however, went to Effingham and, as a result, they won the territorial battle too.

Rugby can rarely be played well on the back foot, and Winchester felt the heat in their own half for far too long.

So it was against the run of play when a searing break down the middle by Andy Ashwin set up a try for Ravenhill, who turned on the gas to sprint home from the 10-metre line well inside the first quarter. Mr Reliable - Dan Kinsey - slotted an easy conversion.

Had Winchester weathered the storm? It seemed like it as they began to ease their way back into the game. All was going well as the visitors, making the most of limited possession, set about their task with verve and imagination.

But after half an hour Effingham were awarded a controversial penalty in front of the posts and Jon Grady made no mistake. Winchester were clearly unsettled and began to kick hard-earned possession away.

And yet again they conceded a try from the last action of the first half when flanker Mike Williams forced his way over for a score which Grady converted.

For all Winchester's shortcomings they could consider themselves unlucky to turn round 10-7 behind. Indeed, the hosts had more attacking opportunities, but until Williams' try made little of them as Winchester's defensive patterns remained sound.

And in the early phases of the second half the visitors' counter-attacking inclinations took over, as Effingham's momentum stalled, their play becoming pedestrian and predictable.

Around the hour mark, Dan Waddington restored Winchester's lead with a typically intuitive, strong-running break that turned the Effingham defence inside out. Kinsey's conversion from near the left touchline bounced over off the bar.

No-one could deny the visitors were good value for a 14-10 lead. Lineout work had tightened up and Winchester were able to bring on fresh legs.

But South Africans Morne van Rooyen and Derek Manning, making their debuts, were perhaps given too little time to pick up the pace of the game - a blisteringly fast break by back row man Manning notwithstanding.

Two other newcomers, Paul Todd and Dan Spiers, had struggled earlier, albeit right winger Todd has an important ingredient - pace. When prop Paul Gething bundled his way over to give the hosts the lead back, however, it proved a hammer blow to Winchester's revival. A Grady penalty at the death put the final nail in the coffin.

Team: Waddington, Todd, Ravenhill, Kinsey, West, Ashwin, Turner (van Rooyen 60), Moreton (Churcher 65), Crowther, O'Donoghue, Hayes, Spiers (Manning 68), Pervin, Knight, Baseley.

Winchester have no game tomorrow (16th), as they were knocked out of the Intermediate Cup by Maidstone. They return to league action on October 23rd with the visit of Chobham to Nuns Road (3pm).