Running out onto home turf the Oxen were looking for a revenge encounter with Marlow and with bright sunny weather and perfect pitch conditions how could they fail.

From the beginning the Oxen applied the necessary pressure to keep Marlow mainly in their half of the pitch, resulting in an early penalty from Johnny 'Not so Famous' Vaughan. A small lapse later and Marlow returned the favour to equalize the scores at 3 -3. Undeterred the Oxen brave fought back and a surging forward move saw Steve 'Bull'

Bridges score a try, with a Johnny 'he's not that funny' Vaughan kick the conversion.

Second half saw a number of early substitutions including Craig 'The Haggis' Balzier come on for Tony 'Old Boy' Howells. Initially Marlow had the upper hand but with 'True Grit' spirit the Oxen forwards including John 'XXX large' Cann fought back to allowing yes Johnny 'Who? Vaughan to take a penalty conversion.

The Oxen continued to apply pressure to Marlow's weak points with great rolling mauls, sadly resulting in 2 disallowed tries. Sensing blood an aerodynamic performance by Tony 'Arrow Head' Wilkinson, smashed through the Marlow lines to take another try for the Oxen, with a JV conversion. All in all a great start to the New Year, signing off Richard pitman.