Magnificent H&B back in title hunt

Horsham, with a game in hand and only a point behind, may still be in the championship driving seat, but a 17-7 reverse brought to an end their unbeaten record.

It was the visitors, however, who made the breakthrough with a well-charged-down kick in the H&B 22, chased up and touched down for an early 7-0 advantage.

H&B hit back courtesy of a chargedown try by centre Ben Arnold which was followed by Jimmy Adams' conversion.

H&B took the lead on 25 minutes when, from a free ball for offside in Horsham's 22, Kit Claughton deftly grubbered the ball through the defence for David Northen to run onto, flick back to Claughton, then via Ben Campbell to Jimmy Adams who dived over in the corner.

H&B made sure of victory with eight minutes to go when Neil Redman burst from a maul leaving three defenders for dead, slipped the ball to Piers Claughton, who took out another defender before passing to David Northen; he thundered into the last line of defence and popped the ball off the ground to Steve McManus, whose exhausting day's work was rewarded with a try.