DEFENDING Hampshire League champions Amesbury Town finally got their season off the ground on Saturday when they rumbled high-flying Ringwood.

Ringwood went into the game at Amesbury's Recreation ground as joint Premier Division leaders but went home with tails between their legs after Lee Hince, Jess Walters and Steve Reeves steered the home side to a 3-0 victory.

It was only Amesbury's second win of the season but they are already behind with games and it took them awhile to shake off the body blow of losing influential skipper Mark Jones with a badly broken leg during an early-season defeat by Lymington Town.

Locks Heath lost the league leadership last week when they tripped up against Petersfield but they bounced back with a 2-1 win at West Wight Mayflower where Mark Jones gave them a 35th-minute lead and Teddy Tugwell popped up with a late winner from the penalty spot after a push on Ian Stocks.

Pirelli General went through a bit of a lean spell in September, but they chalked up their second win on the bounce with Tim Wallis's last-minute header giving them the nod over Esso Fawley.

Fawley are languishing down the wrong end of the table, but Pirelli manager Malc MacNeish said: "They are a better side than their league position indicates. They gave us a few problems."

Vosper Thornycroft have as good a record as anyone in the Premier Division but have only played six times - all of them away! They made it five wins out of six at Colden Common thanks to a first-half goal from central defender Andy Pattison.

Low-flying aircraft caused the postponement of Romsey's Division 1 visit to Fleetlands.

High-flying Fareham Sacred Hearts kept their 100 per cent record in Division 2, trimming Awbridge 5-0 with Graham Lindsey (2), James Chalmers, Sean Munce and Sean Hale on target.

Wayne Scott scored two second-half goals to give Netley Central Sports a 2-0 home win over Ordnance Survey in Division 2. Young midfielder Barry Hurd had a fine game for Netley.

Veteran striker Eddie Holdaway made hay for QK Southampton in a 2-1 win over Compton. He scored twice in the last 20 minutes. Liam Houghton popped up with a late goal to give Otterbourne a 1-0 success at Hedge End.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.