CHINNOR Wildboys dug deep to beat a tough Bicester side and move to within one victory of being crowned league champions.

The 24-3 victory in north Oxfordshire saw our 3rd XV maintain their five-point lead over second-placed Marlow in Counties 1 Southern North.

Despite now heading into the final week of the season, our Wildboys still have a game in hand on their nearest challengers and they know a positive result at home to Wallingford tomorrow night will ensure they cannot be caught heading into their last match of the campaign at Bracknell 2nd on Saturday.

It was a tough game at Bicester, but we made a great start to lead 5-0 after four minutes when centre Andrew Prosser broke through the middle and flanker Sean Latham offered the support to score an unconverted try.

The home side replied on 18 minutes, slotting a penalty to reduce our lead to two points and, despite having prop Karl Crockford in the sin bin, that was how it remained at half-time.

Utilising the wind well, we were now playing with great possession and territory, scoring our second try a couple of minutes after the break.

A solid scrum on the Bicester 22 led to great play in midfield and wing Ben McIntosh dived over under the sticks for his 15th try of the season. Fly-half Charlie Nicholls added the extras to make it 12-3.

Great forward work again proved to be Bicester’s undoing and our patience paid off, spreading the ball wide for Sam Angell to crash over for an unconverted score and a 14-point lead.

The four-try bonus point was then secured with 15 minutes to go when No 8 George Hope showed great strength to shrug off a few tackles and touch down under the posts. Nicholls stepped up to convert the extras and we led 24-3.

That was how it remained for the rest of the match and our Wildboys will be hoping to sign off their home campaign in style tomorrow night when they take on Wallingford at Kingsey Road (7:45pm). We look forward to seeing you there!

Wildboys: S Nicholls, McIntosh, Prosser, Nichols, Graham, C Nicholls, Coulon; Crockford, Taylor, Ludgate, Inman, Jones, Hackshaw, Latham, Hope.
Reps: Hanson, Angell, Jones.