The occasional Stour foray into the visitors 22 produced a couple of opportunities that went begging. But scrum half Toby Handley reacted first to secure possession and drive over from short range when the ball went loose at a Sandal scrum. Stour’s attacking game suddenly clicked to produce a breathtaking purple patch in which their pace, running lines and offloading defied the conditions and overwhelmed the visitors with 4 tries in barely over 10 minutes, two of them straight from restarts.

Neat passing out of the tackle by centre James Otutaha and outside half Rod Petty put centre Joe Heatley clear near halfway, he drew the last defender and fed a scoring pass to no.8 Connor Nicholls on his inside shoulder. Winger Ash Elvers was worked clear from the restart, his inside pass to Heatley blocked by a deliberate knock-on that earned Sandal fullback Simon Frewin a yellow card. A speculative crossfield kick proved fruitless when the chaser drifted offside, Sandal outside half Greg Wood briefly lifting the siege with a well-struck penalty kick. But Stour found touch in the Sandal 22 from a penalty award, upped the tempo and lock forward Chris Roddy’s pass worked flanker Joe Carpenter over the tryline.

The restart saw no respite, Stour probing the visitors’ defences by constantly switching the point of attack. Sandal’s defensive line buckled and Heatley was worked through, finding Elvers whose footwork left the defenders for dead. Halftime 26-3.

The early 2nd half proved an anti-climax, both sides gifting turnovers with handling errors, but the Stour pack got to work in the scrum to force a penalty. Petty spotted Elvers unmarked out wide and landed a perfectly weighted punt for him to score his 2nd try.

A yellow card for prop Stef Thorp took the momentum out of Stour’s game, Carpenter sacrificed to accommodate replacement prop Adam Sturdy. Sandal grasped their opportunity, found touch in the Stour 22 and ground over a maul for a try for replacement Luke Norbury. With conditions deteriorating Stour emptied the replacements bench and opted to play a containment game, shutting the visitors out until a turnover led to a breakaway try for Frewin near the end. Fulltime 33-15.

Stour next travel to the Wirral to take on a Caldy side that took the scalp of leaders Macclesfield last week. Stour’s next home fixture is on Jan 16th when they host Harrogate, 3pm ko.