Thatcham are up, up and away

THATCHAM secured promotion to the Southern Counties League for the first time in their history as they survived a nervy second half showing to add to the club's 30th anniversary celebrations.
The hosts surged into a 29-0 half-time lead and had 36 points on the board within three minutes of the second period getting under way, and Stow's final quarter surge could not remove the gloss of victory.
Thatcham's early set piece domination was supported by some surging runs form deep with locks Mark Smith and Mike Grogan making ground and fly half Toby Littlechild always sniping.
It was loose head prop Matt Langdon who touched down the ninth minute opener for Littlechild to convert before the fly half helped hmsdelf to a seven-pointer inside the 20 minute mark.
Player-coach Martin Reeve squeezed over from a lineout drive and a superbly crafted move ended with tight head Dave Chambers crashing through for another converted score before Reeve bagged his second try just before the break.
When the devastating Littlechild bagged another seven points at the start of the second period, it looked as if Thatcham would run rampant on their way up, but Stow made a real game of it with full back James Holmes sparking their revival.
A tap penalty ended with Holmes touching down, and Craig Chapman rounded off some sharp recycling work with a try converted by George Roddan.
Another quickly taken penalty was finished off by Chapman and Roddan's conversion before Holmes snapped up an interception and raced away from his own half to complete the scoring, but leave Thatcham well in the clear and clear on the way to a higher level.

pulled off their great escape act with a 22-10 win at Litttlemore that secured their survival in the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Premier Division after being rock bototm of the table at the start of the year.
They had not won before then, but staged a tremendous 2012 revival that was capped when they snatched the bonus point win on Saturday that made them safe.
All of the points came in the second half when Hungerford came from behind to win with two tries from Brad Clough and others from Nick Blair and Dave Cree.

also survived in Southern Counties North, despite a 70-5 mauling at Aylesbury after Slough could claim only a losing bonus point from their home game with Grove to finish a point behind the Red Lane club.