Newbury A's back on top

Newbury didn't have to scratch their heads for reasons to be up for this game, knowing that a win in this local derby would put them back on top of the league and go some way to eliminating the disappointment in the previous weeks loss against Reading.

The conditions didn't lend themselves to running rugby and the pitch was torn to shreds before anyone stepped onto it. Nevertheless, there was a game to be had and a game to be won.

It was Newbury who started the brightest of the two sides, leading to an early score from Paul Sayers, making a welcome return to Newbury colours.

The first half was delayed for quite some time due to a neck injury to one of the Thatcham players, so both sides went inside to regroup. Obviously we wish him all the best.

After such a significant delay, it was always going to be the side that responded best that would go onto win. Fortunately, Newbury re-started the game as the initially did, leading to further tries from Nick Mason and Graham Beal.

In awful conditions, the game was littered with handling errors and plenty of set pieces. Newbury, however, kept their composure and stuck to the basics well. The second half brought two more tries from Matt Spencer and Jamie Wallace.

There was almost a sixth try in the last play of the game, David Cree running the length of the pitch to feed Steve Denner in the corner, but the ref deemed his foot to be in touch.

Niling Thatcham on their own turf to go top - not a bad day's work!

Team: Paul Sayers, Nick Weston, Ali Carter, Jamie Crawford, Graham Beal, Nigel Cripps, Stuart Mayo, William Gibb (c); Nick Mason, James Spillings, David Cree, Steve Denner, Dave Hancock, Matt Spencer

Subs: Brian Trott, Mike Ansell, Peter Brown