In blustery conditions a seesaw first half opened Mike Goodall scoring a penalty goal after just three minutes. The home side came back strongly and fly half Owen Gustafsen charged down an attempted clearance from Simon Humberstone to touch down and give his side a 5-3 advantage. Stoke then retook the lead when leading try scorer Dave Lambert crossed for his sixth try of the season, Goodall adding the extras to make it 5-10. Oxford bought the score level before the break with another try. Half-time 10-10.
Mike Goodall gave Stoke the lead again eight minutes after the restart, but Oxford scored again on 53 minutes regaining the lead 15- Stoke were not done and Mike Swenson scored out wide taking the score to 18-15 to For the last 10 minutes Stoke had all the possession and pressure but could not On the last knockings Oxford almost stole it but this was Basingstoke’s day and they ran out winners with the final score:

Oxford Basingstoke 18pts

Team: Mike Goodall; Dave Lambert, Andrew Patrick, Myles Rutherford, Mike Swenson; Simon Humberstone, Darren Lillywhite (rep Karl Buttle 40min); Neil Young, Simon Lovegrove (rep Andrew Rowlands 43min), Shane Murphy; Ross Stirling, George Scott; Chris Williams (rep Steve Pywell 70min), Jim Dixon, Tom Northcote.