Hook & Odiham 28 – Alresford 15 [6th December 2025]
Alresford travelled to Basingstoke on an initially dry, windy December afternoon to take on Hook & Odiham.
The home team kicked off the first half and were immediately put under pressure from a ferocious Alresford pack, that would spend the entire afternoon making inroads into a home pack that struggled to match up.
It was therefore no surprise that Alresford were the first team on the board with a well worked try after 4 minutes. Although uncoverted, the score was 0-5.
And continuous pressure resulted in the awarding of a penalty after 19 minutes, increasing our lead to 0-8.
However, it was the home team who were next to trouble the scoreboard with their first try of the afternoon after 33 minutes. The conversion made the score 8-7 to Hook & Odiham.
And just before halftime, the home team scored their second try as momentum started to shift. Their lead was now 14-8.
Alresford kicked off the second half in determined fashion, with the wind behind us, and a dominant pack.
This dominance resulted in our second try of the afternoon after 50 minutes, and we were now back in the lead at 14-15.
However, in a frustrating passage of play, for whatever reason, Hook came back into the game, and whilst we still had pack dominance, tackles started to be missed, silly mistakes started to creep in, and the momentum of the game changed completely. Hook & Odiham now sensed this change, and made the most of any chances they had with two second half tries, both of which were converted.
This made the final score;
Hook & Odiham 28 – Alresford 15
This was not so much a case of ‘the one that got away’, as ‘the one we let get away’ – we had forward dominance, all the momentum with us, and the prospect of a second half with the wind behind us, but the home team made the most of a strangely passive passage of play for about 15 minutes from an Alresford team that had the ascendancy for most of the first half. Whether it is psychological or physical, we have had two games in a row where we just seem to drop off for a passage of play, allowing teams to come at us, when we should be dictating play. This was a game we should have won.
Our thanks to Hook & Odiham for the match, our best wishes for the rest of the season and we look forward to the return fixture in March.