Basingstoke returned to home base with high hopes, following their good showing in the previous weeks cup win.  In blustery conditions and with rain squalls, the home side made a lot of errors in the first half, these put them into a rear guard action and they did well to only concede a penalty on the 28th minute allowing Sutton & Epsom to go in 0-3 up at half-time.
Almost from the kick-off Simon Appleby made a strong arcing run to score for Basingstoke and as Mike Goodall added the conversion Basingstoke took the lead 7-3.  Sutton now started to exert pressure from their big pack and with further handling errors at crucial times the visitors retook the lead on 61 minutes with a converted try. Mike Goodall brought the scores level on 67 minutes with a penalty and we all hoped for this to remain, however in the last 10 minutes the visitors cranked up the pace and pressure and the Basingstoke defence could not hold out, Sutton running in 2 tries, one of which was converted to produce the final score of:

Basingstoke 10 Sutton & Epsom 22

Team: Neil Young (C), Glenike Hawea, Matt Oliver, John O’Leary (61mins George Scott), Ross Stirling, Simon Appleby, Jim Dixon, Neil Cooper, Darren Lillywhite, Dan Argent (33mins Robbie Northcote), Tim Richards, Anthony Russell, Simon Buckland, Gareth Jones, Mike Goodall, Sub Jamie Folan not used.