ANDOVER Rugby Club moved out of the London South West Two relegation zone with a 38-7 home win over local rivals Basingstoke on Saturday.

The All Blacks, who moved into 11th above relegation rivals Weybridge Vandals with the weekend win, dominated from start to finish against their now relegated opponents.

In front of a large crowd at Foxcotte park, Andover began well and with James Monck taking an early scrum against the head, the tone was set up front.

Within minutes the powerful forwards, with Carl Sievewright in uncompromising mood, were at it again, forcing a penalty try from a short scrum when skipper Simon Preece was certain to score, with Charlie Waite converting.

Ollie Lindridge dominated the lineout and things began to look positive for Andover.

But a series of poor decisions and poor execution assisted Basingstoke in keeping Andover at bay.

The pressure had to tell however and when the visitors received a yellow card for a professional foul, Andover finally broke them with two tries in quick succession.

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The first came after constant forward pressure set up a good ball deep in the Basingstoke twenty-two.

A loose pass flew wide, but Charlie Waite calmly gathered the bouncing ball and dived over.

Soon after an almost identical try was neatly finished by the impressive Ben Hall, as Tom Erskine again set up good position only for a scoring pass to be thrown wildly.

After some honesty at half time Andover calmed themselves and began to play with more control.

With Niko Rowe starting to dominate the centres, Basingstoke ran out of defenders and Alex Kane broke free to score a try superbly converted by Waite.

Andover themselves received a yellow card soon after for a late tackle by Dave Catt, as the game got bogged down a little, but as both teams were restored to strength Andover finally put the visitors to bed.

Kane danced through a tiring defence for a fine try, again superbly converted from wide out by Waite.

Soon after the young full back was on hand again to finish a blind side move, which he converted for a personal haul of eighteen points on the day.

Basingstoke did manage a consolation at the end as Andover relaxed.

However it was of no consequence as the spoils and a valuable five points went to Andover.