SKIPPER Bert Baxter’s Andover III finally got the result their performances of lte have deserved, as they came back from their trip to Winchester with a win.

The Fighting Falconssponsored side started well and number 8 Scott Bradbury bulldozed his way through the defence to open the scoring with Mike Graham converting.

Winchester bounced straight back, catching Andover napping and scoring out wide.

The visitors regrouped and forced Winchester back into their 22 with powerful runs from Arron Styles, James Hatcher, Richard Oliver, Jason Bate and Hywel Inglis before a penalty saw Graham again add points.

Returning scrum half Gordon Mitchell was able to release Andover’s young backs to show their pace with Tommy Gentleman, Patrick and Lewis Moody making huge yards.

The pressure told as Winchester gave away another three points and Andover had an eight-point lead at the break.

The home side scored first in the second and closed the gap to a single point before prop Dan Cole stunned the home team with his raw power as he crashed over to score on his debut.

The visitors then had to defend but Paul Gilbert was perfectly placed to intercept and easily dash 50 metres to score under the posts with Graham again converting.

Winchester never gave up and their hard work paid off to close the gap again, but further tries for Andover through Patrick and the impressive Stefan Long put them out of sight.

Winchester had the final say by scoring in the final moments but the day belonged to Andover.

With no official turning up for the game special mention must go to Carl Borg Neil who stepped in and had an outstanding afternoon as referee.