Stour kicked off playing into a stiff breeze and were straight out of the blocks, counterattacking from a Sale kick from their 22. The ball went quickly left where first James Rodley then Joe Bridger made ground. With the last defender drawn Bridger slipped a pass to winger Josh Trinham who outgassed the cover to score from 40m out, Chris Scott converting.

Sale trucked it back up midfield from a lineout, forcing a penalty just outside the 22 when a Stour defender went off his feet to give outside half Liam McGovern a straightforward 3 points.

The restart was hoofed back deep into Stour territory, the visitors ran it back but conceded a turnover from an ineffective tackle clearout. The hosts’ speculative kick ahead found touch but Stour failed to clear their lines with a poor clearance kick and then a wayward lineout throw. Gifted possession deep in the Stour 22 Sale pressed an attack, a Stour defender drifted out of the line and no.8 Jake Pope drifted unmolested through an uncharacteristically porous Stour defence.

A fluffed clearance kick gifted Stour possession that they drove up midfield, producing a penalty as a tackler failed to roll away, Scott levelling the scores at 10-10 just on the quarter-hour.

Conditions continued to deteriorate, play became error-strewn and both sides found it difficult to mount any sustained pressure. Stour breathed a sigh of relief when a long range effort by McGovern flew wide and then benefitted from some Sale backchat, a penalty awarded just short of the Stour tryline reversed in their favour. A wayward pass was hacked through by the hosts but Trinham’s cover tackle just prevented the grounding by winger John O’Donnell.

Stour had to put in a huge defensive shift early in the 2nd half as the hosts threw everything into attack, but they were held out and eventually the siege was lifted. Standing water started to appear on the pitch surface, a scoreless stalemate looking likely as both sides struggled. A break by Heatley was unsubtly halted by a high tackle that earned O’Donnell a spell in the sinbin. But as the clock ticked down Sale fullback Matt Simpson’s chase of his speculative garryowen was unceremoniously halted when Stour loosehead Stef Thorp found himself in Simpson’s path with neither brakes nor steering. He too went in the sinbin, McGovern opted to kick at goal from where the ball landed and nudged the hosts ahead with just 4min remaining. Stour tried valiantly despite the man deficit but were unable to pull it back and left with just a losing bonus point.

Next week Dec 19th Stour host Herefordshire rivals Luctonians for a pre-Christmas North Midlands county derby, ko 3pm.