SOUTH Woodham Ferrers bagged their first London Two North East victory of the season, beating Basildon 49-16.

But, despite the final score-line, it was Basildon who started brightly and they opened the scoring with a penalty.

This kick-started Woodham into action though and, with strong running through Searls and Langley, they were able to breech the visitors’ defence far too often.

Gilbert opened Woodham’s account after sustained pressure on the visitors’ line and Reeve converted well to make it 7-3.

Woodham were moving the point of attack far better than in previous weeks and, with Gateson at scrum half moving the ball quickly, Basildon were guilty of giving a number of penalties away, which Reeve gratefully accepted to make it 16-3.

Basildon continually fell foul of the referee at the scrum and breakdown, which allowed the home team to put pressure on by kicking to the corners. Woodham’s line-out was much improved and, from another driving maul, number eight Bull, came up from the bottom of pack to extend his side’s lead to 21-3.

The home team then scored their third try of the afternoon with a catch and drive as this time winger Duggan managed to peel off the tail and burst through to score. Reeve converted from the sideline before Basildon hit back with a penalty to cut Woodham’s lead to 28-6 at half-time.

Basildon added another three points at the start of the second half but Woodham’s already dominant scrum was further enhanced when new signing Guess joined the fray and he soon crashed over from short range.

Reeve kicked the conversion to make it 35-9 before Searls then finished off a good team try.

The conversion made it 42-9 but Basildon hit back to enjoy their best spell of the match which resulted in a converted try of their own.

However, Woodham had the final say with a penalty try which came from another scrum.

The win pushed Woodham up to eighth in the standings with Basildon down in 10th.