Fareham Heathens gained an 11-5 Hampshire League 2 victory at AC Delco, which their second-half superiority just about deserved.
AC Delco had only themselves to blame for the defeat because they squandered innumerable scoring opportunities before the interval, at which point they had only a fifth-minute Chris Barnes try to show for their efforts.
Despite the crisp, ideal conditions the handling of both teams was appalling, so it was little surprise that it took Heathens until three minutes from time to score a try through Dave Brown. Niall Allardyce, who had landed a first-half penalty, sealed victory with a late drop goal.
Bournemouth gained a morale-boosting 22-20 win in their Southern Counties South local derby clash with Wimborne while Oakmedians toppled Portcastrians 19-17 in the all-Bournemouth Berkshire, Dorset & Wiltshire 2 clash.
Elsewhere it was a question of friendlies with Havant landing a 24-12 victory at Portsmouth. Havant dominated the first period and scored four times through Rob Matthews, Dylan Raubenheimer, Anthony Russell and Hywel Williams, two of which Nick French converted.
It was a different matter after the interval as Portsmouth rallied but they could only conjure two tries through Steve Jones and Leon Reilly, Reilly converting his own.
Millbrook and Winchester II produced an afternoon of flowing rugby in a closely contested match which Millbrook won 14-12.
Winchester drew first blood with a try and conversion from Andy Pryce which became their first-half lead but Millbrook then rallied and scored two tries in quick succession via Wayne Renwick and Chris Ings, both improved by Alan Day. This was sufficient for victory despite a late try for Winchester.
Eastleigh proved just too strong for Fordingbridge who went down 25-17 after scoring two tries in a late rally. The sides had been level at half-time, Darren Hayward having scored a try for Eastleigh, but the hosts surge ahead with tries from Steve Lydford, Gary Lovell and Gary Evans, with Jim Longhurst converting one and landing a penalty to give Eastleigh their victory.
Alton subdued Petersfield 24-13 after the hosts had taken an early lead with a penalty from Andy Lynton and rallied with second-half tries from George Rees and Will Aynsbury. However, Winston Carter was in top form for Alton and grabbed a hat-trick of second-half tries to accompany one from Jason Rees in the first. Richard Rowledge completed the victory with a couple of conversions.
Ventnor annihilated Milton Keynes 80-0. Dave Martin converted ten of Ventnor's 12 tries, one of which he himself scored.
The other Ventnor tries came from Scott Jesney (2), Ginel Munteanu (2), Leighton Bryant, Callaghan Chapman, Bob Englegardt, Dean Magnusson, Danny Monks, Danny Newbery and Ian Payn.
Esso II played Kingsclere from Hampshire 3 and gained a 21-7 victory thanks to tries from Andy Headley (2) and Pete Legate, all three converted by Lee Haisman.
Southampton Institute have yet to win a Saturday fixture and their miserable campaign continued with a 30-5 defeat by Southampton II.
Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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