TWO missed conversions cost Fordingbridge a third successive defeat in Snows Hampshire at the hands of leaders Bognor Regis 12-10.

The game at the Recreation Ground got underway after a minutes silence in remembrance of Daniel West, a Fordingbridge mini, who passed away last Friday after losing his battle with cancer.

In the bitter cold driving wind the game got underway and was an even affair until six minutes from half time.

A breakaway try, against the run of play, resulted in Bognor going into the break 7-0 up.

After the break, newcomer to the senior side, Peter Scott, finally broke through the Bognor defence after a prolonged period of pressure on the visitors' line. Although the conversion was missed, Fordingbridge were back in the game and, with domination in the scrums, kept the visitors under constant pressure.

It was, however, Bognor who scored with an unconverted try to re-gain their cushion.

'Bridge were chucked a lifeline when Chris Gogin touched down but in the difficult conditions the conversion was narrowly missed.

Assistant coach Martin Norton said: "After two disappointing games, this was a superb performance from the New Forest side, preventing Bognor from getting a bonus point win for the first time this season and achieving a losing point themselves."

THE seconds' difficult season continued at Ellingham and Ringwood, surrendering 57-12.

Es won the bragging rights with an impressive win against their rivals in Dorset Division 2 on Saturday.

Ellingham scored five tries in the first half.  Wing three quarter Brad Evans scored two, with the others coming from scrum half Dave Jones, centre Oli Harvey and prop forward Darren Kendall. Their fly half Andy Weeks added three conversions to give the home side a 31-7 lead at half time.

In the second half, their full back Alex McGuire scored two tries, scrum half Dave Jones scored his second and centre Joe Walsgrove went over in the corner. Andy Weeks added three further conversions to make the final score 57-12.