Winchester planted the London Division 3 South-West championship initiative into Jersey's lap when they surrendered their 100 per cent record to Effingham & Leatherhead in a disappointing away day performance.
Against a side who admitted they were expecting to be well beaten by the in-form unbeaten Nuns Road outfit, Effingham came out determined to play the underdogs and, with the visitors a little under strength, it worked to their advantage.
Without key pack members Adi Mort and Campbell Ettinger, the Winchester forwards found the going hard and it was the backs that got them through as the home side enjoyed the early territorial and possession advantages.
Andrew Ashwin's break from his 22 to set up a well-timed pass to Ed Ravenhill got the visitors on the board with a fine try, against the run of play, but, as has happened to Winchester often this season, they conceded a score right on half-time to trail at the break.
An exquisite mazy run and scorching score from full-back Dan Waddington put Barry Bridgman's side back in front as Dan Kinsey's touchline conversion came off the crossbar but the last 15 minutes belonged to Effingham as they wrapped up the game.
A try and then a penalty left Bridgman rueing the amount of ball being kicked away.
"We were disappointed we didn't do what we planned and so we handed the game to them on a plate," he said. "What possession he had, we kept kicking away."
Tottonians remain fourth but were far from impressive beating Alton 11-3.
It was one of those games which coach Bob Millard was happy to have seen go by without defeat as his charges struggled to put any kind of cohesiveness together in an all-round untidy performance.
The second half was better than the first where Mike Dibden put the game beyond doubt with a good try but Totts were very disappointed with their efforts and Millard expressed his dissatisfaction.
"We didn't play well to be honest," he said. "We won an abundance of setpiece ball but we couldn't put any sustained pressure on.
"After the way we have played against Wimbledonians and Winchester, we need to take it up a level after this game. This was not one to remember and it was good to get it out of our system now."
There was better news for Andover, as they clocked up their first competitive win of the season, hammering Weybridge Vandals 27-0 to move up to eighth and continue the Vandals' incredible record of not scoring a single point in their three home matches this season.
In London Division 4 South-West, Southampton bounced back from their Petersfield mauling with an impressive comeback against league leaders Dorking but still fell to a 23-15 reverse at Test Park.
Trailing 23-0 shortly after half-time, two tries in quick succession from Chris Milne and Jamie Stewart had the Surrey side worried and Saints continued to threaten but fell just short.
With the returning Martyn Sheridan and scrum-half Paul Brant having fine games alongside all the forwards, skipper Tony Cador was much happier than seven days previously.
"Obviously I am disappointed that we didn't win, but I am happy with the performance," he said.
"It was a very good game and much closer than the score reflects."
Despite the scoreline which shows another 50-point decimation for Romsey, it tells little of the story again as players pulled out of the squad with injury and illness right up to Friday evening.
With six changes to the side from last week and a completely different front-row once more, they played well to restrict Paulines to 19-0 at the break but tired as the match progressed and leaked a further 30 points in the second half.
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