The unpredictability of Winchester's season surfaced once again as they beat second-placed Hertford 24-14 at Nuns Road - a far cry from the downbeat measures of their trip to London Nigerian last weekend.

After slumping to the foot of the log in harrowing circumstances, Winchester roared back to overturn a much-fancied Hertford, hitting them with three tries in the opening quarter, two of which came from prop Henry Dorling.

Rolf Stratford and Rob West also crossed for Mike Marchant's side, while Andy Ashwin kicked two conversions into the bargain, as the coach was delighted to get back on the winning trail again.

"A superb performance from the team and just what was required. We had a long chat with them all to thrash it out last week, but to come back like this was excellent," he said.

There was no joy at all for the three Hampshire sides in London Division Two South as all went east and came back with nothing to show for their efforts.

Gosport & Fareham could not prevent Worthing from extending their 100 per cent record after a 16-7 loss, but gave a good account of themselves and were on level terms until Ben Slatter was sin-binned and lock Harry Harrison injured, which gave the Sussex side the advantage.

Once again, with a weakened team and two players who had travelled from the north after representing the Army rugby league team against their New Zealand counterparts the previous evening, they were certainly not despondent at the level of the result.

Portsmouth were, though, in their 8-5 reverse at Beckenham in a game coach Ian Chandler described as "probably the worst I have ever seen in my time watching the game".

All the scoring was done in the first half with Steve Cox crossing for the Rugby Club outfit. He later retired from the match with an abdominal injury, which will add him to the monstrous injury list that has ruled out almost a full side of first XV players.

Anthony Lintern, who kicked nine out of nine last weekend, recorded the alternative 100 per cent record this time around - he missed four out of four, which would have given the visitors a victory their performance barely deserved in the end.

A much happier coach was Andover's Keith Mitchell, who came away from Sevenoaks with an 18-7 defeat but was pleased his side demonstrated their capabilities in defeat.

Chris Collins tussled with Jim Wallace for their try, while Lee Cowley, often a hooker was outstanding at openside flanker and Mitchell saw signs of distinct improvement coming through. "We just wanted to keep it simple, especially in the foul weather.

"That is what we did and although we obviously disappointed, there were some smiles for once at the end of the game, especially as we felt we fought all the way to the end.

"Hopefully this result might be the one that turns things around for us, because Sevenoaks are a decent side and we competed with them."