With the hosts coughing up penalties under pressure the boot of outside-half Luke White had kicked Stour to a 0-6 lead in the first quarter. Stour built up pressure on the hosts and a direct run by centre James Otutaha created a break, flanker Billy Harding’s support rewarded with an offload that gave him a run-in under the posts for a 0-13 lead.

Home goalkicker Steve Collins pulled back a penalty but White struck back to give a halftime score of 3-13.

The hosts struck first in the 2nd half, a try for fullback Andrew Riley converted by Collins who added a penalty to bring the score to 13-16. But Stour pressure created a gap for winger Ash Elvers whose elusive running secured a try wide out on the right. Back came the hosts, a punt through by Collins collected deep in Stour’s in-goal by Riley for his 2nd try, bringing the scores to within a point. White missed his next penalty attempt but redeemed himself with a fine long-range strike to take the score to 20-24 with barely 5min to go. But the hosts started to ratchet up the pressure, a kick to the corner seeing their impressive rolling maul finally pay dividends with hooker Jon Matthews the scorer.

As time ran down Stour secured a scrum from the restart but were unable to work White into drop-goal range, the hosts grateful to kick the ball dead and celebrate victory after a penalty award for obstruction. Stour took a well-earned bonus point but are now 6th in the Nat 2 North table.