WALCOT 12 Dorchester 17

HAVING suffered defeat in their previous two outings, Dorchester were grateful to come away from Walcot with a narrow win in a very scrappy encounter.

The first half was an ext-remely cagey affair, with neither side able to put together any phases of play and mistakes highly prominent.

But 20 minutes in, the visitors finally opened the scoring courtesy of a James Baker penalty.

The home side hit back with a converted try from a five-metre penalty, which also saw Dorch-ester’s Joe Gower sent to the bin in the same move.

However, the depleted visitors survived the next 10 minutes without conceding further, indeed Baker slotted a second penalty to close the gap to a single point at the break.

The half-time team-talk appeared to have galvanised the county town outfit who were on the front foot immediately and, following several minutes of pressure, Baker added a third penalty.

Any hope that this would settle Dorchester was soon dashed as they slipped back to the mistake-ridden ways of the first period.

And Walcot retook the lead when, from nowhere, their blind-side flanker side-stepped his way past four defenders and touched down in the left-hand corner.

As the minutes ticked away, Dorchester huffed and puffed but could not quite get over the try-line – Shane Costigan, Chris Miners and Lee King all just inches short.

Eventually their efforts paid off when James Baker found enough space to squeeze home in the corner. The conversion was missed, leaving Dorchester just two points in front with four minutes to play.

The time passed without a scare and right on full-time Baker kicked his fourth penalty to close out a welcome victory in South-ern Counties South.

Dorchester: Warren, Pengelly, Cottell (Chalker 60), Broadbent (King 50), Makepeace, Miners, J Gower, Newsam, D Gower, Costigan, Bowden, Bament, Baker, Weller, Hunt (Clark 70).

Highwood Man of the Match: Chris Miners