BASINGSTOKE RFC Griffins went top of the Hampshire South West Merit table after they hammered visiting Romsey 51-0.

The home side started strongly, with some good hard runs from Steve Briggs and Jamie Lee and Dan Williams calling the shots.

It was not long before fly-half Williams broke through the Romsey defence with a 30 metre run and he also kicked a conversion.

Romsey struggled to hold on to the ball as the abrasive ’Stoke forwards piled on the pressure, which resulted in a penalty that Williams slotted over for a 10-0 lead.

A ’Stoke lineout was won by Iain Coles, who offloaded to Ben Hall, and the ball moved through the hands of Williams, Matt Howell and Brent Evans, who put in full-back Dave Ashford for a superb try from a well-drilled set play.

With their tails up, ’Stoke now moved the ball at pace, and it was not long before winger Doug Dickinson finished off a fine move with his first try for the club.

This was followed up only a few minutes later, when the home side’s centre, Howell, battered his way through five Romsey players to score under the posts.

Centre Evans then got in on the scoring act with a mazy run, which took the score to 38-0 at half time.

After the break, the home side found the visitors a lot more resilient, but they were still able to add to their score.

Howell picked up another try late on and Williams got his second score of the day to complete the 51-0 scoreline.

Coach Steve Parker said: “I thought we were excellent in the first half. We had trained really well on Thursday on our set pieces and patterns and that was evident.

“Dan (Williams) and Ben (Evans) were a super combination, ably supported by Matt Howell and the other backs.

He added: “We are now pushing hard for the league title. We have got to keep training hard and playing as a team.”

The Cavaliers were not so lucky at the weekend as they went down 17-12 at Andover III.

The visitors' scorers were Jake Whitby and Chris Pritchard and at one point they were reduced to 13 men due to injuries.