Old Albanian suffer further setback in title race

With Cambridge not in action due to their game against Taunton being postponed, it was a chance for the Old Albanian to move back to the summit of National Two South but they failed to take advantage.

After defeats to Cambridge and Bishops Stortford, the OA’s suffered their third straight defeat against Chinnor which saw the South Oxfordshire club move closer to safety as they are currently embroiled in a relegation battle.

The only downside for Chinnor was the Redingensians also won to move further away from the bottom three as they inflicted a heavy defeat on the Old Elthamians.

Bishops Storford cranked the pressure up on the Old Albanian after their win over Canterbury while Barnes maintained their unbeaten run and Worthing Raiders moved up to ninth after victory of Bury St Edmunds.

Taunton v Cambridge, Redruth v Dorking and Clifton v Southend Saxons were all postponed.

Old Albanian 5-17 Chinnor

The Old Albanian’s title ambitions suffered a major blow on Saturday as they were beaten for the third straight game, but this time against a relegation threatened Chinnor.

Oscar Heath’s converted try was the only score in the first half for Chinnor before Heath along with Samuel Angell stretched the away sides lead to 0-17 on 59 minutes.

The OA’s were staring at another defeat and that loss was confirmed as they could only manage a try from full-back Nicholas Foster six minutes from time.

This was by far the shock of the weekend in National Two South as Chinnor are now just two points from safety while the OA’s remain two points behind Cambridge, but the league leaders now have a game in hand.

Canterbury 14-26 Bishops Stortford

Bishops Stortford are now just five points behind the Old Albanian after they clinched victory away at Canterbury.

The home side were actually 14-5 in front at half-time thanks to tries from Harry Sayers and Thomas Best `with Mark McGraith going over for Stortford.

But scores from Alex Patton, Michael Gallagher and Nicholas Hankin turned the game in Storford’s favour in the second period to secure Stortford’s eighth victory in their last nine matches. As for Cantebury, back to back defeats leave them four points clear of the drop zone.

Old Elthamians 18-42 Redingensians

The Old Elthamians suffered their heaviest defeat for 15 years at the Queen Mary ground as their unbeaten start to 2016 came to a halt as they were outplayed by a Redingensians side fighting for their National Two South survival.

George Drury opened the scoring for the Redingensians and further tries from Conor Corrigan and Jamar Richardson helped them into a 13-18 half-time lead with Jay Rudland-Thomas and Craig Dowsett scoring quick fire tries just before the break for the OE’s

Sean McDermott and Lee Nelmes exchanged tries before the Redingensians ran riot.

McDermott sealed his brace and tries from Ross Crame and Craig Nightingale completed the bonus point win for the Rams which sees them move up to 11^th in the table – three points clear of the relegation zone.

Barnes 40-0 Launceston

Barnes stretched their unbeaten run to six matches as they comfortably beat bottom club Launceston on Saturday.

The home side ran in tries from Fraser Carlisle, Thomas Stanton, Marc Popham and Tom O’Toole in the first 40 to wrap up a 14^th bonus point of the season for the promoted club.

The form side in the division eased off after the break, but still managed to dot down on two more occasions as James Greenwood and James Remfry crossed to round off a professional and efficient display for Barnes.

They are now up to seventh in the table and are 19 points clear of the drop. As for Launceston, this was their 18^th defeat of the season and with 11 games left to play, they are 31 points adrift at the foot of National Two South.

Worthing Raiders 27-23 Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds fell to their fifth straight defeat as they were beaten by Worthing Raiders who are now ninth in the table after this triumph.

Bury took an early lead through a Chris Lord try and two Scott Lyle penalties and carried their advantage into the break with Matthew McLean scoring three points for Worthing in the first period.

McLean added another penalty straight after restart before Daniel Peach, Jonathan Whitall and a Penalty Try gave Worthing a 27-13 lead on 72 minutes.

Daniel Sargent was then yellow carded for the home side a minute later which opened the door for Bury to mount a fightback, but with the clock on red, scores from Lyle and Joseph Reid wasn’t enough to snatch the win from Worthing.