BASINGSTOKE RFC kept the pressure up on third placed Old Cranleighans in the London Three South West with a 25-17 victory at Bognor.

The victory saw Stoke remain three points behind their Surrey rivals with five games to play.

However, they did not have it all their own way in Sussex as the home side opened the scoring to lead 5-0.

Stoke were soon level as a great miss pass from Warren Simmonds, found Brent Evans for his first ever try for the first team.

The visitor’s second try of the game was scored by captain Robbie Northcote, after a great dummy from scrum half Ed Mallaby.

The final try of the first half went the way of Stoke, as Matt Guilfoyle dived over to make it 15-5 at the interval.

The visitors collected the bonus point try after the break, as a great drive from a line out ended up with Simon Appleby coming up from the bottom of the pile with the ball.

Jonty Newton then added Stoke’s fifth try of the afternoon, after a drive from the line-out.

After this all the scoring came from the home side, as they collected their second try of the game, as their full back put the ball down under the posts and the conversion made it 25-12.

Bognor completed the scoring with an unconverted try from one of their wingers after a scrum.

After the game captain Robbie Northcote said: "I was extremely proud of the guys for stepping up the way they did after we had an awful week with players dropping out, injuries and general unavailability causing a massive selection headache up to the morning of the game.

"Our concentration levels dropped for the last 10 minutes and we let Bognor get a couple of easy tries which made the final score of 25-17 seem closer than the game actually portrayed."

Stoke now have a week off with their next game on March 4 when they entertain the Trojans in a game which will count towards the league and also a Hampshire Bowl semi-final.