ABINGDON faltered after a strong start as they lost the Southern Counties Senior Vase final 33-17 at home to Swindon College.

The Old Boys had won 31-15 on their last visit to Lambrick Way in December, but they were on the back foot early on.

After good work by Abingdon’s forwards, a chip from fly half James Webb was grounded by centre Callum Percival.

Mark Roberts kicked the conversion and the full back added a penalty to put the hosts 10-0 up after 26 minutes.

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But Swindon, two places and 15 points above their opponents in the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premier Division finished the half strongly.

Tucker Blinkhorn, Charlie Grabe and Stuart Knight touched down.

Grabe also kicked two conversions to put the visitors 19-10 up at the break.

After the restart, the visitors added two more tries to settle the contest.

Knight and Matthew Allen broke through and Grabe’s conversions made it 33-10.

Abingdon stuck to their task and rallied in the final 20 minutes, forcing Swindon to concede a host of penalties, with Tommy Farr and Richard Smith sin-binned.

Abingdon made the most of the numerical advantage, with Robert Tyreman scoring a try, converted by Webb. But it proved just a consolation.

There was no joy for Harwell, who lost 46-7 at East Dorset in the Junior Vase final.

The visitors were unlucky to be trailing 15-7 at half-time, conceding three tries and scoring just the one by Matt Wild, with a conversion from Andy Lee.

In the second half, the unbeaten hosts took control with four converted tries and a penalty.

In the BB&O Championship, Andy Pynegar and Alex Cleminson scored tries as Didcot lost 32-10 at home to Risborough.

Other result: Witney 4th 29 (tries A Foggett, R Mills, R Harris, A Clinkard, A Brown; cons Mills, J Merriman), Bicester 3rd 19 (try T Shaw; pen tries 2; cons S John 2).