BASINGSTOKE will take the field tomorrow with their third-choice scrum-half against Down Grange visitors Old Colfeians.

Tom Humphreys suffered a broken arm in last Saturday's humbling 54-17 defeat at Southend so second team captain Simon Wickes steps up to partner player-coach Ian Calder at half-back.

Humphreys himself only stepped up to the starting line-up because Darren Lillywhite was leaving for Australia to watch the rugby world cup.

The injury setback is the third broken limb to hit Basingstoke in their last eight games.

Calder started the sequence with a broken arm at the tail-end of last season and prop Steve Collins followed with a broken ankle in training.

Humphreys is likely to be sidelined for some three months.

Tomorrow, Calder is hoping last week's errors will be eliminated as his side go in search of national league points. At Southend a series of missed tackles let in the home side for a flattering big win.

Calder said: "We're always going to come up against bigger teams but we've proved before that we can tackle. We just chose not to.

"Southend would have beaten us on the day but not by that sort of score."

This week his side have been working hard in training.

Calder said: "I'm confident we can turn things around. Colfs are always a tough team to play but we want to carry on where we left off in our last home match against Dings Crusaders and we want to make Down Grange a bit of a fortress again.

"We've got to show the desire and commitment we showed against Dings. We let ourselves down badly last week and we've only ourselves to blame."

Basingstoke: M Lucas; Carl White, S Buckland, E Chimbima, R Holmes; I Calder, S Wickes; L Ryder, M Evans, S Hobden, A Wilson, K Chapman (capt), S Appleby, J Dixon, S St Bernard. Reps: Robbie Northcote, R Baker, Christy White, Russell Northcote.

Basingstoke III 26pts, High Wycombe II 15

FOUR tries orchestrated through the forwards were enough to get the Griffins back to winning in Thames Valley League division B.

First points came after four minutes, when Herman Learmond-Criqui side-stepped inside to force an offside decision. Dom Laval ran the penalty and scored himself.

Basingstoke extended their lead from a rolling maul with Matt Bray touching down. The third Basingstoke try came through Andy Coomber after the forwards had driven on. Dave Luff kicked his second conversion.

Eight minutes before the break Luff cut infield before passing outside to Laval who set up Simon Hall to score. Richie Hull converted.

Andy Coomber was sin-binned at a ruck and the High Wycombe full-back followed in a separate incident. Basingstoke led 26-5 at half-time.

Man of the match was Russ Northcote.