Basingstoke 5 Petersfield 13: WITH a rest weekend and the postponement caused by the snow, Petersfield’s first team had to wait three weeks to attempt to halt their run of three defeats on the bounce.

Field’s opening salvos looked promising and the visitors soon found themselves camped in the Basingstoke 22. After six minutes the hosts gifted Nick Blumlein the simplest of penalty kicks and Field were on the scoreboard and on their way.

However, as the minutes passed and Field pressed for their first try, the mistakes began to creep in to their play and assured play became anxious. The half ended with just the solitary three points on the board and Field down to 14 men after Andy Barnes was sin-binned just before the break.

Field began the second half with more vigour and improved accuracy. Halfway through the third quarter Basingstoke were the next to feel the referee’s displeasure and received a yellow card of their own for persistent offending. Taking the resultant penalty as a scrum, Field fed the ball to Josh Haslett who evaded his opposite number’s despairing tackle to sprint in for a score on the right wing. With the wind against him, Blumlein failed to add the extras.

Basingstoke then managed a sustained attack and barrelled over on their right wing to reduce the deficit to just three points.

The visitors then made it into the Basingstoke 22 and up to the line where a penetrating drive from prop Sam Brown secured Field’s final, unconverted try.