THE Basingstoke Griffins enjoyed a brilliant 68-10 victory over the visiting Sandown and Shanklin seconds last Saturday.

The victory came despite the visitors getting the first points on the board thanks to a penalty.

’Stoke opened their account as Shaun Fennell broke down the left and offloaded for winger Scott Barr to score with a strong run from the 22.

The islanders hit back with a try, but the home side took the lead back after a quick tap-penalty, which saw Dave Greenaway run through.

This was quickly followed up with a fine try by winger Carl Hayward and man-of-the-match Andy Flower kicked over the conversion.

Soon after, Flower broke away after taking a fine long pass from scrum-half Mikey Jacob and released Fennell to score.

Then a fine solo run by Chris Dorling saw him notch up the first of his hat-trick of tries.

A few minutes later, Hayward again took a fine ball from Fennell before using his pace to score another try.

The final score of the half came from Will Jenkins after a brilliant backs move from a set-piece.

After the break, ’Stoke increased their lead with tries from Dorling and Fennell.

Fennell’s score came at the end of a powerful run from the 22, after he had been released by Jenkins.

Dorling and Terry Robson both added further scores after some fine work from the forward line.

It was left to captain Greenaway to have the last word, exchanging passes several times with Dorling, Fennell and Ed Pawsey before going through a gap to score the last try of the game.

Coach Steve Parker said: “It was one of those days when every player performs his role almost perfectly.

“Fair play to Sandown, they were strong in the set-piece and at the breakdown, but we had some real quality to our play today.”

Elsewhere, the Cavaliers had a tough day at the office as they lost to visiting Millbrook seconds 39-0.

The home side’s cause was not helped by injuries to fly-half Steve Love and outside centre Jason Jacob.

Cavaliers coach Chris Hughes said: “It was a hard defeat to take, but I can’t fault the effort of the lads. We tried our best, but it was a very strong Millbrook side.”

This weekend all the teams are on the road. The Griffins face Portsmouth thirds, the Cavaliers are away to Southampton seconds and the fifths travel to Alresford seconds.