ELLINGHAM & Ringwood put in an immense performance against Petersfield at the Raymond Brown Memorial Ground on Saturday to leapfrog the East Hampshire side with a 19-12 win, moving up to third in Snows Hampshire One.

The New Forest side started well with an early try from full-back Dominic Pitt. Their scrum half Josh Butcher added a difficult conversion and landed two long-range penalty kicks to open up a 13-0 lead.

Butcher added another penalty kick early in the second half, but Petersfield then crossed for a try from a rolling maul to close the gap to 16-5. Another Butcher penalty relieved the pressure, but a converted try from Petersfield made it 19-12 with five minutes left. Petersfield pushed hard for a share of the points, but Ellingham’s defence held firm for an important home win.

Es’ seconds moved up to second place in Dorset Division 2 on Saturday with a hard-fought 30-26 victory over Bridport’s firsts.

Bridport took an early 7-0 lead with a converted try, but Ellingham’s seconds clawed their way back into the game when their captain Aaron barker kicked two penalties. These were followed by tries from hooker Gareth Chew and full-back Jonny Owen. Barker added a conversion to give the home side an 18-7 lead at the break.

In the second half the Ellingham wing three quarter Jonny Joiner scored two tries, one of which was converted by Barker. Bridport came back strongly with three further tries and two conversions to reduce the deficit to 30-26 and in the last five minutes Ellingham were pleased to hang for a bonus point win.

Ellingham women moved back to the top of National Challenge Division 2 South with an impressive 88-0 win against Dorchester.

Centre Nina Hoadley scored five tries, with the others coming from Jas Clarke (3), Chloe Barrett (2), Paige Darvill-White (2), Ellis Collins, Amy Shipley, Georgia Smith and Anna Stephenson. Chloe Barrett kicked four conversions.