Stoke gained revenge with this tight win in wet conditions to open the New Year with an important Playing into a strong breeze the home side went behind to 2 penalties and in at half-time trailing 0- With the elements in the second half but with a dying wind it took until the 48th minute before Mike Goodall reduced the deficit with a penalty 3- Stoke continued to press the visitors line and again on 56 minutes Mike kicked a penalty to level the The game in which Stoke had shown great calm and control even with being down to 14 men on two occasions was ignited by a try to Dave Lambert following good handling on 60 minutes, the conversion was missed and so the final 20 although containing a couple of scares remained scoreless and a well deserved win to Basingstoke was the Final Score

Basingstoke 11 Reading 6
Team: Neil Young, Simon Lovegrove (Andrew Rowlands 60), Shane Murphy, George Scott, Chris Williams, Simon Appleby, Jim Dixon (C), Tom Northcote, Darren Lillywhite, Simon Humberstone, Mike Swenson, Myles Rutherford, Andrew Partick, Dave Lambert, Mike Goodall. Not used Steve Pywell, Karl Buttle