HIGH Wycombe completed a hat-trick of wins in the Southern Counties North after a 22-19 victory at Didcot on Saturday.

Wycombe travelled to Oxfordshire with 12 of the squad that recorded a dogged win against Bucks rivals Chesham the previous weekend injured or unavailable.

The visitors fielded an extremely young team with three players making their debuts and the average age of the starting line-up being just 21.

The deadlock was broken when captain Joff Forber intercepted a pass on his own 10-metre line and showed great strength to hand off two defenders to carry the ball into the Didcot 22.

With the home defence scrambling back, his path to the line looked blocked, but an audacious dummy wrong-footed the covering defenders and he went over to score a fantastic solo try. Debutant Billy Bickford made the conversion and High Wycombe led 7-0.

Wycombe knocked on at the restart and another penalty for hands in the ruck gave Didcot an opportunity to score some points, but the kick was pushed wide.

A strong scrum then put the away team on the front foot and, after several phases, a hard carry from Forber enabled him to score. Bickford made the kick to increase the advantage to 14-0.

Bucks Free Press:

Didcot reduced the arrears when a clearance from a lineout did not make touch and a mazy run from the winger took play up to the line where the forwards took over and eventually scored before half-time.

The second half started with the visitors on the attack. A penalty for a high tackle saw Didcot reduced to 14-men and Bickford successfully kicked for the points on offer.

After several penalties conceded in quick succession, Didcot decided to tap and go and, although High Wycombe defended manfully the home team went over to score with the kick made, reducing the deficit to 17-12.

Conceding penalties was hurting Wycombe and they were once again camped inside their 22. From a scrum, the Didcot inside centre ran a great line to go over and score, with the conversion booted to give them a 19-17 advantage.

With 10 minutes remaining and forced to defend for most of the second half, it seemed that the Wycombe youngsters had run out of steam, but no one had told them that.

With minutes to go, an accurate lineout throw set up a maul and the experienced Mike Fradgley spotted a gap to break off. He was well tackled by the Didcot fly-half but offloaded from the floor to the supporting Harry Tanner who went over to score.

Bickford took his full minute and although the conversion attempt was missed the final whistle sounded for a 22-19 win.

Bucks Free Press:

It was a game of two halves with the young High Wycombe side showing great resilience and character to secure victory in the dying seconds.

The win sees Wycombe stand in fifth position in the league table ahead of a visit to Kingsmead Road from third-placed Shipston on Stour this Saturday.