Western Counties North Stroud......................... 20 Cheltenham North..........38

LEADERS Cheltenham North displayed the better all-round skills to walk away with the points, and could have extended their winning margin had four glaring try-scoring opportunities been squandered.

Earlier, North were soon in their stride with Jon Steckbeck opening Stroud up, Ian Morgan converted.

Stroud responded in style with probably the best move of the game. From Stroud's own half the ball was flung left through several pairs of hands.

Luke Dando straightened up the move on the wing and with plenty of support and nimble handling North were running out of cover. As the line beckoned Darren Eagle received an inside pass, an obscene dummy sent North's defence the wrong way and he kicked his heels for the line. Josh Lister converted and added a penalty to take the lead.

However, North hit back and a driving maul put Chris Penhale over. North added to their lead when from a line out the ball was fed to Steckbeck who totally wrong footed Lister and he sped for the line, Morgan converted.

Stroud attacked and a fluid move across the backs from inside North's 22 saw a four to two overlap. Unfortunately with the line at Stroud's mercy what could have been a try scoring pass was fumbled on the line when it might have been better to go wide.

Stroud lost discipline in the second half conceding four penalties to Morgan's boot, although Julian Harry slotted a clever drop goal in between.

Slipping away

With the game slipping away Stroud had little option than to attack, and introduced John Farr back after injury, but exposed themselves to counters and Dave Johns helped himself to a late try that killed the game off, Morgan added the extras.

Stroud had the last word when Dando was rewarded for his commitment, much to the chagrin of North's supporters who had taken a dislike to his robust play all day, Lister converted.

There was no reason why Stroud could have not taken a scalp on the afternoon, the pack had certainly done enough to earn a result, where Dave Clutterbuck and Rupert Wakefield were outstanding.