Old Wimbledonians went down to a 29-6 defeat at Andover on Saturday.

The result was the same as in their relegation battle last April ; a decent first half display and a half-time lead of six points,followed by a collapse in the second period.

Several debutants took their places in the team and there was an air of unfamiliarity about the performance.

Prop forward Richard Delfino was forced to call off at the last minute and with several front-row exponents unable to travel Peter Fokes stood up and came in to hook. Tom Wheeler took his place at No 6 and Paddy Donaghy came in on the wing.

However , playing down hill in the first half the Old Boys held their own arriving at the interval by dint of two well struck penalties from Matt Jones, although it was felt that a penalty try should have been awarded to the visitors for a trip by the Andover full-back preventing a spectacular try by centre Richard Travers.

In the second period scoring traffic was all one way with the Andover forwards rampant in scoring 29 unanswered points.

There were several forays by the Wimbledonian forwards with skipper David Robertson and Alastair Lewis always to the fore.

On his return from honeymoon Alex Horley took over the full-back slot from Jamie Crone who will be away in Australia for three months or so and performed brilliantly with both running and handling skills in good order.