Windy weather greeted the teams to Norton Down, but this chased the rain away and the game started in bright sunshine North Dorset, with the added benefit of the slope in the first half, hoped to make the most of these conditions, but the home side kept the ball in their hands and

controlled possession for most of the forty minutes.

Early in the half, Norton lost centre, Jack Rowles, to an injury, which led to a reshuffle with Luke Murphy joining the field of play. With the team playing with pace and energy, Norton mounted attack after attack and after a series of forward drives, led by second row Gimson, Flanker, Joe Button, rounded the defence and dived over in the corner. Moon was unable to add the conversion.

Norton extended the lead after Fear won a lineout on the left hand side of the field, setting up a characteristic driving maul, Edgell was driven over the line.

The home pack continued the onslaught and while attacking the top right hand corner, a North Dorset prop was adjudged to have killed the ball illegally and was issued a yellow card. While down to fourteen men, North Dorset tried to use the elements to their advantage. Their fly half hoisted a high ball the Norton winger was unable to collect and the visitors pounced on the loose ball and scored a try, which was converted.

Prop, Mat Edgell, added a second try to his tally when he found some space on the blind side wing and drove over to score in the corner. With a strong scrummage and faultless line out,

Norton had had a lot of good possession, but they went into half time with a slim five point lead, knowing they had squandered too much ball in contact. These mistakes had allowed the visitors to clear their lines on a number of occasions.

Half way through the half, Norton’s injury list was extended when they lost influential second row Gimson with a bruised hip. The second half had seen North Dorset up their work rate and put a lot of pressure on the home team’s line, but they responded with a fine defensive display ensuring that North Dorset did not score a single point in the half. Denning collected the only points of the half when he scored from a driving line out.

Norton’s defence won the game with a number of players, especially, Sawkins and Martin, putting in fine displays working tirelessly to keep the opposition from scoring.

This was a hard fought bonus point win, but the team remain unbeaten at the top of the league. Before the game, Jonathan Wood, of FDC Law, presented the Norton Captain Matthew Denning, with the match ball, continuing their sponsorship of the team.