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Basingstoke move into Second Place Sutton & Epsom 12pts v Basingstoke 28pts Basingstoke's improved away form continued with an in the end convincing win over Sutton, the only side that Stoke have lost to at home in the league by four goals to 1 goal and a try. The game was in doubt due to a frozen pitch but it was the visitors who started well, but could not turn this into points and from a sloppy scrum the ball squirted out for Sutton to score. To their credit the Basingstoke pack were having the better of things with Phil Della-Savina back in the "groove". But it looked that Stoke were not going to get their just rewards as they complicated things out in the three-quarters. But finally after a period of pressure near half-time Scott Taylor forced his way over and Ian Calder kicked the conversion to put Basingstoke into the lead Half-time Sutton & Epsom 5pts v Basingstoke 7pts From the restart Basingstoke continued to be the more dynamic side with the forwards growing in confidence and from a series of rucks and quick penalties, Ian Calder forced his way over and kicked the conversion via the cross-bar. Basingstoke then went to sleep for a period and this allowed the home side to exert some rare pressure and their scrum-half weaved his way over and with the conversion this reduced the lead to two points. Stoke continued to flirt with danger and Sutton had the chance to go into the lead but their outside half Frost missed with a long range penalty. From that point Stoke took charge of the game and put the lethargic home side on the back foot and from a poor home side scrum the ball went loose and after some frantic attempts to clear the ball, Marcus Reeve dived on the ball to score. Calder kicked the conversion. Sutton were now chasing the game but did not have the class to break through and it was Stoke who increased their lead with a length of the pitch move involving seven or eight players and finally it was fitting that skipper Richard Baker dummied his way over to score. Calder hit the woodwork with the conversion but it went over to complete the scoring. NEXT GAME Dec 29th home to Winchester (Hampshire Cup) ko 2:00 pm
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