Powergen South-West Division One East Dorchester 23 Amersham and Chiltern 0 Dorchester welcomed the New Year with a performance and result that was far better than they had achieved in the whole of the previous 12 months.

Apart from five minutes near the start of each half, they controlled their South-West Two game and emerged convincing winners to leap-frog their visitors in the league table and boost their hopes of avoiding relegation.

Skipper Richard Elliott was particularly pleased with the way everyone in the team had played their part in defence where it mattered, denying the visitors the consolation of any points whatsoever - Dorchester's first clean sheet for more than two years.

With three tries, all coming from concerted and co-ordinated forward moves off attacking line-outs, the home spectators were able to enjoy the rare luxury of knowing the points were secure and not having to endure agonies of apprehension as the clock ticked away.

The only disappointment was that the backs were not able to add their names to the scoresheet, but it was their strong running which had contributed to setting up the field positions from which the tries resulted.

A series of early penalties allowed the visitors to apply some pressure, but stirling work by the Cowling twins forced a turnover and clearance to half-way. Thereafter Amersham were hardly out of their own territory throughout the first period.

Much of the credit for this went to Mike Gannaway and the marauding back-row of Elliott, Dan Cowling and Dafydd Wright, who harried their opposite numbers unmercifully to prevent the visitors obtaining good attacking ball.

Dorchester's pressure brought its first tangible reward after 15 minutes. Again a Cooke run prompted an Amersham infringement, but this time Scott prodded the ball into the corner to set up an attacking line-out. Neat interplay between Wright and Richard Miller set up a moving maul, and the home forwards overloaded the defensive line before Stuart Ramsay peeled off and forced his way over from seven metres out.

Scott converted, and stretched the lead to ten points with a penalty from in front of the posts.

After the visitors missed two penalty opportunities, the half resumed its previous pattern, with Dorchester on top, and it was no surprise when a second try followed, in strikingly similar fashion to the first.

Again, a left-wing attack led to a line-out in the opponents' 22, and this time Wright, took a short pass and was through a gap to score, though this time the difficult conversion failed.

Amersham started the second half ferociously, recovering their own kick-off, they took play to within 10 metres of the Dorchester line, and battered away through several phases of play. But the home's defence was secure, and Amersham's intensity rebounded on them in spectacular fashion. Stand-off Cornish was isolated in a double tackle by the home back-row, and failed to release the ball. Unhappy with the decision to penalise him, he booted the ball away and expressed his disgust and was eventually sin-binned for continuing with his grievance

With a temporary extra man, Dorchester were able to take the sting out of Amersham's revival, and though they did not score during this period, the home side generally resumed control, and territorial advantage.

Although play was more even, the home side posed the greater threats, and Scott extracted three more points when an Amersham man played the ball in an offside position.

Then, as the game drew to its close, Dorchester gained an attacking line-out on the right and Gannaway was released to steal round the blind-side and touch down.

Dorchester: Harvey, Harries, A Cowling, Morris, Cooke, Scott, Gannaway, Raines (Thorne 65mins) Miller, Boyt, Ramsay, Barrett, D Cowling, Elliott, Wright. Replacements not used: Andrews, Spensley. Scorers: Dorchester - Tries: Ramsay, Wright, Gannaway. Conversions: Scott. Penalties: Scott (2).

* Swanage and Wareham's game at Grove was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.