In so doing he overtook winger Nathan’s brother Ali Bressington who had scored 35 against Westcombe Park back in 2008. It was as well for Stour that his goalkicking radar was also functioning well, for Preston defended doggedly and hit them on the counterattack, gradually eroding Stour’s 23 point halftime lead with 4 second half tries in an absorbing high quality contest of running rugby.

With both regular 2nd row starters injured Ciaran Moore & Chris Depper took their places in the engine room. Nathan Geekie replaced the unavailable Stef Cooksammy on the left wing, while ex-DK 2nd row Nick Murphy on loan from Coventry made his debut from the bench.

A clean lineout feed off the top set up the first try, centre Sione Tu’ipolotu rumbling up midfield before flankers Nigel Mukarati & Eji Uzoigwe linked to put Ryan into space. He executed a simple draw & give to put winger Geekie through to score his first home try. 7min 5-0. The restart was hoofed back at the visitors but they ran it from deep, recycled quickly and outside half Lewis Allen spotted a gap in a defensive line that hadn’t reformed quickly enough. Through he went, showing a clean pair of heels to score under the posts. 10min 5-7, game on.

Preston also kicked the restart back infield, Stour ran it at them, recycled and with ringmaster scrum half Jacob Nash growing in confidence with every game the ball was worked right to Ryan who too found a mismatch with a front row in the defensive line. Round he went, stepping the fullback to score in the corner. Blink & you’d miss it. 11min 10-7.

Preston launched a wave of attacks but the Stour defence absorbed it, great line speed from Uzoigwe & Mukarati forcing them back in the contact area. Eventually a penalty was conceded though & Allen slotted it. 18min 10-10. Stour secured another attacking lineout, this time centre Stef Shillingford & Mukarati driving it up the central channels before the alert Ryan spotted the visitors’ failure to cover a pick & drive through the tackle area. He was through like a flash, not a finger laid on him on his way under the posts. This time he slotted the conversion too, 20min 17-7. Breathless.

Stour’s next attack produced a Ryan penalty for a high tackle. 27min 20-7. An overcooked Preston lineout throw gifted possession back to the hosts who moved it quickly wide to Bressington who chipped over the Preston fullback into in-goal. The threat looked covered but the ball cannoned off the defending winger, wrongfooting everybody except Ryan who dived on it to secure his hat-trick try and celebrating in style by slotting the touchline conversion. 30min 27-10. Two further successful Ryan penalty attempts concluded the first half scoring, halftime 33-10.

Stour started the 2nd half on the attack, but a turnover gifted time & space to Allen who sliced through the scrambling defence to put fullback Mark Murray in for a try. 44min 33-17. After a sequence of Stour attacks referee Claire Hodnett lost patience as the visitors’ defence drifted offside once more and sinbinned replacement prop Brad Tuff, Ryan slotting another successful penalty kick. 50min 36-17. But despite the numerical advantage a Stour attack was turned over deep in the Preston half, they countered and Allen found himself in acres of space to run around the cover & score. 36-24 on the hour mark but Uzoigwe reclaimed the restart kick & Ryan struck back with another penalty after the visitors dropped a scrum near their own line, 39-24.

A nice break by Nash took Stour into the visitors’ 22, but they were free kicked in the scrum and Preston again countered from deep, Allen making big inroads into a tiring defence which only just held out. They put themselves under further pressure with some scrappy tap ball in the lineout and a missed touch kick, feeding Preston’s back 3 who were looking for any opportunity to counterattack. They reached the Stour 22 where an attacking maul was pulled down at the expense of a sinbinning for replacement hooker Jordan Page which, with Dale Garner off injured, sent the scrums uncontested for 10min. Preston reloaded and drove prop Peter Altham over in a catch & drive against the depleted defences, 70min 39-29 and nerves starting to jangle.

Preston looked to have held out the next Stour attack but spilled the ball in their 22 as they tried to repeat the run from deep, gifting a try to replacement outside half Gareth Bown who simply picked it up and wrongfooted the defenders, 65min 46-29. An overcooked lineout throw and some tired defensive work gifted Preston centre Sam Russell a final try as the clock wound down. Full time 46-36.

This Saturday Stour make the trek North to take on league leaders Hull Ionians. The Lions have a home Midlands 2 (North) league fixture against Camp Hill, kick-off 2.15pm.