The contest for promotion from the RFU’s London 2 South-West league is boiling itself down to a three-horse race, and as things stand after last weekend it could not be a closer one.

Tottonians are top with 50 points, Winchester second with 49, and London Cornish third with 48. KCS Old Boys at fourth trail Cornish by a massive 15 points. With Totts and Winch not due to play each other until the last game of the season in mid-April, it could well go right down to the wire.

Last Saturday, a big pre-Christmas crowd, fuelled by an excellent and well-supported lunch, welcomed second-from-bottom Tadley to North Walls Park, and saw Winchester register their ninth consecutive win and their ninth try-bonus point.

36-22, the record books will show. But neither players nor coaches will be overjoyed with that. Back in September, Winchester went to Tadley and beat them 34-6. Both teams have improved since then, but on that evidence Tadley have improved more than Winchester.

Winchester started well, with a try for captain and inside centre Jake Hiscock in the fifth minute. From a ruck on the right, his midfield partner Frank Bagnall delayed his pass, drew two defenders, and sent him in to the left of the posts. Fly-half Johnny Morris added the extras. 7-0.

Winchester second-row Rob Rees fielded the restart kick and set up a ruck on half-way. As he released the ball, Hampshire Society referee Mike Weaver was screened from a blatant Tadley hand in the ruck, and instead penalised Rees for not releasing.

By the end of the game, Mr Weaver would call a halt to proceedings for no fewer than 31 penalties. Flowing rugby this was not.

10 minutes in, Tadley came back with a penalty kicked by their veteran fly-half Craig Raymond. Eight minutes later, he tapped another penalty before the Winchester defence was organised, and ran through to touch down under the posts. His immense conversion kick cleared not only the crossbar but also the stream, landing in the Winnall Moors nature reserve. Winchester found themselves 7-10 behind.

It took less than two minutes for Winchester’s own veteran, lock forward Campbell Ettinger, to put that right. Yet again, it stemmed from a penalty, this one against Tadley. Morris kicked to the corner, Rees caught Robbie Arthur’s throw-in, the ball came to Ettinger at the back of the maul, and from that distance nobody was going to stop him touching down. Morris added the extras, and the home side was back in the lead 14-10.

On the half-hour, the Winchester forwards and backs combined in the slick handling that has become their trademark this season, but only too little of which was seen in this match. Bagnall to flanker Michael West, Westy to tight-head prop Jim Beavan, a couple of Fred Astaire shimmies from the 17-stoner, quick recycling at the ruck, and Beavan’s fellow-prop Alex Lee was over in the corner. 19-10.

Winchester’s flanker Zach Kinnaird, not long returned to fitness after a knee injury, came off with hamstring damage, later happily thought to be no worse than a small tear. Rees moved back to No 8, Chris Keegan from 8 to 6, and Jerry Alfandari came off the bench into the second row.

As the first half moved into injury time, another good Winchester passing sequence ended in a ruck 5 metres from the Tadley line. Keegan, who scored tries in the first two matches of the season but had not crossed the whitewash since then, picked up at the back of the ruck and crashed over. Morris added the extras, and half-time came with the score 24-10 to Winchester.

As the second half began, Winchester supporters’ hearts lifted. Their team had visibly raised their tempo, and for a while looked something close to their best. After eight minutes, full-back Tom Forster came into the line and fed winger Matt Burt for him to touch down in the corner. Morris’s conversion attempt hit the post.

But Winchester’s forwards were not going to allow the Cynthias (as the great Gloucester forward Mike Teague used to call the backs) all the glory. Less than four minutes later, Rees was over in the other corner, and this time Morris made no mistake.

(For lovers of statistics, here is an interesting one. Of the 51 tries that Winchester have scored in their 12 league matches this season, 26 have been scored by backs and 25 by forwards. The top three try-scorers so far are backs Hiscock and Burt with 10 and nine respectively, and forward Rees with eight.)

36-10, Winchester scored no more, and the quality of the game nose-dived. If the first half had been stop-start, the rest of the second was stop-stop. The first-half penalty count had been 12 with one yellow card; that for the second was 19, with three.

Substitute Matt Lown, new father of twins since his last appearance against Old Reigatian on the 6th December, came on for Arthur who had taken a knock to his shoulder. 19-year-old Alex Tickle made a capable debut in the first team, substituting for Adam Dye, and looked the part.

Successive yellow cards left Winchester a man down for the last 25 minutes, and they conceded two tries to Tadley’s winger Chris Dennison and outside centre Charlie Cox, the second converted by full-back Robbie Dodds-Sampson.

When Mr Weaver signalled the start of the Christmas break from rugby with the final whistle, the sense of relief from both players and spectators was palpable.

Winchester will resume their league season on January 10th with a must-win away fixture against London Cornish, another team that enjoys flowing rugby. Winchester have developed a habit of rising to the occasion: they will need to start 2015 by doing just that.

Winchester team: Tom Forster; Matt Burt, Jake Hiscock, Frank Bagnall, Adam Dye; Johnny Morris, Connor Breen; Alex Lee, Robbie Arthur, Jim Beavan, Rob Rees, Campbell Ettinger, Zach Kinnaird, Michael West, Chris Keegan.

Substitutes: Matt Lown, Jerry Alfandari, Alex Tickle