Alresford 5pts, Alton 31pts

IN recent years these two clubs have enjoyed a healthy local rivalry which they were able to rekindle following Alton’s promotion last season – and the match was more competitive than the final result suggests.

Playing under a clear blue sky and in brilliant sunshine, Alton found themselves on the defensive for the first five minutes.

When they did find themselves in the home team’s half, they immediately set up a flowing move from left to right which freed up winger Ed Lowman to go over in the corner. An excellent conversion by Cameron Hamer followed to give Alton a 7-0 lead.

The next 25 minutes was closely contested with neither side dominant, but Alresford eventually broke the impasse when Alton were penalised. They kicked to touch and from the lineout set up a maul from which they drove over to touch down for an unconverted try to cut the arrears to 7-5.

Alton were then awarded a penalty but missed the attempt and just before half-time an Alresford player was yellow carded and Alton set up a lineout on the five-metre line. A clean catch allowed a good maul to be formed and Ryan Capes forced his way over for the try. Hamer again converted, easing Alton into a 14-5 lead at the break.

And just 60 seconds into the second period Alton won a scrum. Number nine Mark Crowther quickly fed replacement stand-off Joe Gwyther who set free Hamer, now at inside centre. He sold the defence three outrageous dummies which gave him room to cross for the try, which was unconverted but padded Alton’s lead to 19-5.

The game then became a bit stop-start, not helped by the heat and regular water breaks, and nothing of note occurred until the hour mark when Alton were awarded a scrum ten metres from the Alresford line. A clean heel by Luke Parratt and excellent control gave the pack the opportunity to drive for the line. The home scrum fragmented and the referee had no hesitation in running under the posts to award a penalty try to stretch Alton’s lead to 26-5.

Alton’s final score came through centre Brendan Summer, who finished off some good approach play by his teammates with an unconverted try.

This was an excellent result for the Silverbacks which puts them third in the Hampshire Premier table, a performance which built on last week’s efforts with the team beginning to show coherence and a level of fitness higher than that of the two sides they have played so far.

Tomorrow, Alton welcome Farnborough, who were promoted from Hampshire 1 alongside Alton, to Anstey Park in a bid to make it three wins out of three (kick-off 3pm).