THE results could not have fallen any better for the Hampshire clubs in London Division Two South as both Gosport & Fareham and Portsmouth close in on the leaders Worthing and third placed Tunbridge Wells following outstanding scorelines in their favour.

Portsmouth knew that only a victory would keep their end-of-season interest alive, but they achieved more than that by crushing a poor Worthing side 26-10 with a rampaging second-half effort.

Trailing 10-0 at the break against the gusty winds, Portsmouth got firmly stuck into the Sussex outfit, with the forwards laying the platform from which the backs excelled, slicing through at will and sending the visitors to their third defeat of the season.

Birthday celebrating Matthew Gronow scorched the turf with two tries while Australian recruit Grant Erskine helped himself to one on the wing. "Absolutely superb performance," beamed coach Ian Chandler.

"We defended very well against the wind and ran riot in the second half, having turned our forwards back into the way they prefer to play, allowing the backs to exploit what I thought was a very poor side, considering they are the league leaders."

It has given them a huge psychological edge over them, as the pair meet again this coming weekend in the re-match.

Another victory for the Rugby Camp side then will see Gosport & Fareham go top, if they beat lowly Wimbledon. And their fine performance in beating Tunbridge Wells this weekend, whom they leapfrogged into second, leaves them trailing Worthing on points difference alone.

A virtuoso performance from fly-half Jonathan Wood, who scored 18 of the peninsular side's 23 points, was enough to further dent the team from Kent's chances of keeping hold of the promotion ring, going down 23-17.

"An awesome performance," was Gosport secretary Iain Rackham's verdict. "Jonathan was excellent, as were the whole back line. The forwards played well and allowed the backs to run at them, to which they had little answer."

Andover's re-arranged match against Wimbledon fell foul to the waterlogged pitch, which denied them the opportunity of pitting their wits against Tim Herman, the former Portsmouth coach, who sensationally quit the Hampshire side last week to return to Surrey. He left them to take up the post alongside Chandler!

Winchester's third straight London Division One victory has opened up a comforting gap between themselves and the rest of the stragglers, but they were not at their best in beating basement-dwellers Cheshunt 13-5.

It was a must-win game and they did triumph, but coach Mike Marchant professed that it was "not a good performance, although we deserved to win."

In this scrappy match, winger Luke Ryan's try, coupled with Andrew Ashwin's eight-point haul, was enough to pick up their sixth win of the campaign. But as the coach said. "it does not take the pressure off us as a club to where we are.

"We had a virtually full first XV squad pack missing through unavailability and injury, including skipper Richard Knight, so to come back with the points was good and it sets us up nicely for the Southend fixture this week."