In their first season in London Division 3 South-West, Tottonians have twice come off the field hugely disappointed with their performances - and both have against third-placed Effingham & Leatherhead.

Their 34-15 reverse against the Surrey side at Water Lane this weekend was just that as they leaked tries too regularly to leave sidelined skipper Miles Northover frustrated but admitting that Effingham had improved since their last encounter.

Mike Dibden's try in the first five minutes gave the home side the lead but, with their defence poor and Effingham's far better, the result was never in much doubt as the visitors overtook Totts in the league table. Joe Jarvis crossed late on for a consolation.

Alton warmed for their trip to Jersey next week with an excellent 31-17 victory over Weybridge Vandals, courtesy of a hat-trick by scrum-half Matt Pead.

Coupled with 16 points from kicker David Rowledge, the red-and-blacks stepped over London Irish Amateur into seventh in the table.

Southampton are still in with an outside chance of joining the promotion race following their 22-14 win over US Portsmouth but, having stormed into a 14-0 lead in the opening quarter, they will be cursing that it was not a lot more.

Prop Wayne Allen ran through a huge gap in the Services defence from his 22 and the pacy Denville Elleston scorched from halfway to seal the second. But the Saints eased off and saw the visitors level midway through the second half.

A tense final quarter was settled when Ben Rainbow crossed for the city side and Dave Griffiths slotted a penalty to clinch a seventh win of the campaign and keep their slim top-two chances alive.

Romsey are still bottom but will take considerable heart from their 12-0 home defeat to second-placed Farnham, who took until the last 15 minutes to break the deadlock.

It was a brave attempt by the injury-rocked Sports Centre side and Farnham will count themselves extremely fortunate to have kept their promotion record on course as a try and a pushover very late on sealed the win.

Impressive debuts for Dave Grosse and Matt Patience pleased the home side and it looks like it will only be a matter of time before Bryan Musk's side bounce out of their slumber at the foot of the league.

Petersfield, on the other hand, are in real trouble and their 26-0 walloping at the hands of Old Paulines could have been considerably worse had the results of teams below them not gone their way.

Missing key players George Rees and Bim MacKay, they lacked direction and forcing David Wheeler, a regular full-back to play at fly-half, caused their talented back line to see little ball all afternoon.