Norton travelled to Sherborne and will rue yet another poor start away from home. Playing up quite a steep slope, the forwards were easily in control in the set piece, but did not protect the ball in contact, allowing the home side to turn the ball over and quickly counter-attack.
Sherborne took an early lead with a penalty, but Moon equalized with only ten minutes played.
It looked like the home side would go into the half time break with a 13–3 lead, but the last few minutes of the half saw both sides score. Norton from a push over try by their Captain, Denning, and the home side breaking through some weak tackles to score a converted try, extending their lead to twelve points at the break 20–8.
Norton now had the slope in their favour and intended to play a territory game and use their powerful forwards to control the game. The first try of the second half came quickly and when Denning added his second from a driving maul, Moon added the conversion.
Immediately from the restart, Sherborne attacked the Norton line. Winning the ball, it was fed to fly half, Abbott, under pressure, his clearance kick was charged down. The home side
collected the ball and scored under posts.
Norton now had to attack at every opportunity and their strong runners came into play. Murphy and Mitchard came close to scoring. But it was their second row, Gimson, who crossed the line twice and with Moon adding the extra points, took the lead for the first time, 27–29, with ten minutes left to play.
All Norton had to do now was to close the game out. Unfortunately, Sherborne kicked well for territory and won a line-out and their flyhalf kicked a drop goal to take a one-point lead to the end of the game.
Norton did get two points from the game, but cannot be this complacent in their remaining league games.