Hungerford suffer derby day defeat on opening day of Berks, Bucks & Oxon season

Hungerford RFC suffered a 10-40 home defeat to Slough in the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premier.

Slough quickly took the game to Hungerford with their fly half calling the shots in the early exchanges, but the home defence was strong and difficult to break down.

The turning point occurred when the Hungerford fly half outside half Brad Clough was given a yellow card just before half time.

During these 10 minutes Slough took full advantage and added a couple of well worked tries.

This gave them extra confidence and they quickly added a few more tries to build a substantial lead.

Hungerford opened their account after a good run by Henry Mills was offloaded to John Tempest, who used great sleight of hand to release Josh Parsfield to blast over for the score.

Hungerford soon got their second try after Matt Stevens seized on a loose ball inside Hungerford’s 22 and made a mazy run up field, leaving five defenders in his wake.

A clever interchange between Ashley Stokes and Dan Holley created a gap on halfway for Ellis Hambrecht to take the wall at pace swerve inside his opposite winger and scorch through the defence for his debut try which was one of the best to be scored at the ground.

A further yellow card cost Hungerford in the closing stages and Slough ran out comfortable winners.

In the same division, Aldermaston secured a 3-0 win over local rivals Tadley.

Newbury Blues fell narrowly short in their clash with Oxford Harlequins in South West 1 East, losing 30-27 to suffer their first defeat of the season.

Meanwhile, Thatcham also tasted defeat on the opening day of the league campaign as they lost 53-24 to Reading Abbey in the Tribute Southern Counties North.

It was a difficult day at the office for Hungerford Lions as they went down 86-14 to High Wycombe 3rd in the Berks, Bucks and Oxon 3rd South.

In the same division, Thatcham 2nd fell to a 22-13 home defeat to Farnham Royal, while in Berks, Bucks & Oxon 1, it was defeat for Newbury 2nd as they lost 46-5 away to Oxford Harlequins.

In Division 2 South, Tadley 2nd bear Marlow 3rd 47-12.

Newbury Women started their campaign in the South West 2 Championship with a 30-0 defeat away to Guildford Gazelles.

Their first home game of the season takes place at Monks Lane on Sunday, when Ivybridge are the visitors.