WOOTTON Bassett Under 13s returned from a mini break to defeat their Chipping Norton counterparts 24-10 courtesy of a Kenny Matthews treble.
Bassett travelled to the Oxfordshire club but any suggestion that Bassett might be rusty were quickly put to one side within the first two minutes as Matthews stormed through to score two tries under the posts, one of which was converted by Joe Gill.
The game looked set to be a rout at this early stage, but Chipping Norton regrouped and contained Bassett for the next 25 minutes.
This pressure paid off for Chippy and they eventually broke away to score two tries to trail just 12-10 at half-time.
The second half started with no let-up in pace from either side and although Chippy dominated the scrum, Bassett were able to win more of the ball in open play.
Surging runs by Phil Bardwell, Chris Badger and James Mullins eventually broke down the Chipping Norton defence and enabled Matthews to complete his hat-trick, with Gill kicking the conversion.
Oli Stavrakakis finished the match by running in one of his trademark tries.
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