THE 22-7 scoreline in Basingstoke's favour reflected this match perfectly.

This was a dour, tight Hampshire derby between two sides desperate for the league points, for the hosts to launch them up the table, and for Winchester to continue their recent good run.

With ten points in the opening nine minutes, Basingstoke gave themselves a lead they did not relinquish, and did not look like relinquishing.

Winchester's continual trait of being slow out of the blocks and conceding early points was much in evidence, as some fumbling defending gifted scrum-half Tom Dean a second minute try, which Kiwi player-coach Ian Calder easily posted the additional points.

Remaining of the offensive, it was Dean's interception from a quickly-taken tap penalty which saw the hosts extend their advantage through Calder's penalty, as Winchester dived over the top at a ruck in front of the posts.

Joe Hocking's side finally got into the game but were chasing the tie, and were forced to chase it further when Gareth Jones crossed after Win-chester's defence finally cracked under some sustained pressure on their line.

They were given some hope when prop Adrian Mort pounced after Richard Knight's initial burst, with Andrew Ashwin adding the conversion bang on half-time. But it was a short lived hope as Jason Rees won the race to Neal Taylor's chip ahead as the ball bobbled around in goal to re-open the 15 point gap.

And then it was shut up shop time for Basingstoke, staving off the threat of a repeat of two years ago, the last time the pair met in league action when Winchester won 16-13.

Winchester's captain Hocking could not understand his sides apprehensiveness. "For some reason we were nervous about today's game," he mused.

"We should have just tried to keep confident after last week victory over Sutton & Epsom, and if we had played that way, we would have beaten them.

"Having lifted the momentum in the second half, we didn't channel that into a solid arrow head, and kept getting isolated.

"The will was there, but you cannot gift sides like Basingstoke ten points in the first ten minutes. It is frustrating, as we always tend to come here and make Basingstoke look good.

"But we didn't play to our strengths and were too thoughtful about what we were doing. I don't believe Basingstoke were the better side out there today."

For Basingstoke, Ian Calder disagreed. He said: "We made a lot of play in the first 20 minutes and played a lot of rugby but did not get much return from it.

"I think we were trying to go that extra yard; maybe a bit of over eagerness. But credit to Winchester who scored late in the first half to close the game up a bit."

Basingstoke's Caffrey's Hampshire Cup game with Winchester, scheduled for next Sunday December 16 has been put back until Saturday December 29, as Winchester are involved in the RFU Intermediate Cup next week against Gosport & Fareham.