Alton gained a second giant-killing in the Hampshire Caffrey's Cup by winning 28-27 at Havant in a rousing tie yesterday.

Things looked good for Havant when they took the lead early on thanks to a Nick French penalty.

However, the latter stages of the first period belonged to Alton as they steamed into a comfortable lead. Nick Mills got the first score out on the wing, Sam Law joined in from full-back to get the second and Jason Rees put the icing on the cake when he grabbed a third in first half injury-time.

Richard Rowledge improved all three tries before converting Alton's fourth as Gareth Evans touched down eight minutes after the break. Just before that, French had landed a second penalty for Havant, but the hosts looked beaten at this stage, trailing 28-6.

A fighting Havant comeback began when Adam Jewitt dashed down the wing for a fine solo try and continued when Scott Hill scored with five minutes remaining. Although Jewitt scored again and French converted all three tries, Havant could not prevent Alton taking a second London 1 scalp in consecutive rounds.

The final on Saturday, April 1, will be a North Hampshire affair after Basingstoke qualified to host Alton by beating Southampton 64-0 in the other semi-final. Southampton put up spirited opposition and competed well for an hour but were overrun in the final quarter.

Set on their way by a brace of Matt Hart penalties, Basingstoke had built a 23-0 lead by half-time thanks to a couple of tries from Denville Elleston, both converted by Hart in addition to a third penalty strike.

Hart also got things going after the break by improving his own try and two of the six which followed from Jamie Palmer (2), Richard Baker (2), Robbie Holmes and Steve Collins.

An upset was also looking a distinct possibility in one of the semi-finals of the Hampshire Caffrey's Bowl when Fordingbridge and Millbrook were tied at 9-9 as half-time approached. This changed in the space of three minutes when Alan Day firstly landed his fourth penalty, then added the extra points to a try scored by Gordon Randell after a dreadful defensive error by Fordingbridge.

John Walkman added a fourth penalty to narrow the Fordingbridge arrears just after half-time but Day replied in kind shortly afterwards.

Fordingbridge then wasted two opportunities to cut the ten points deficit, by declining to attempt a simple penalty opportunity and then wasting good ball won with a strike against the head.

The final quarter belonged to Millbrook and they added further tries through Rob Prowting, Mike Mulcahy and Dominic Sales, plus another Day conversion. Although Walkman did goal a consolation try by Phil Collier for Fordingbridge in this period, Millbrook were eventually 39-19 winners.

Millbrook will host Romsey in the final on Sunday, March, 19 after Romsey's 20-14 victory over a spirited Isle of Wight side. Romsey were awarded one penalty try and scored others through Nick Roach and John Rogers while Pete Ellis added a conversion and penalty.

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