WITNEY held off a late Banbury surge to claim the derby spoils in a thrilling 18-15 win at a rain-soaked Hailey Road.

Two tries gave the west Oxfordshire side an 18-3 lead at the break in the South West 1 East opener.

But newly-promoted Banbury battled back in the second half to set up an exciting finish, with the hosts’ defence holding out.

Centre Matt Goode was stopped short of the line early on for the visitors, but it was Witney who took the lead.

Full back Arron Lambourne caught the ball on half-way and found Callum Godfrey, who ran in from 35 metres. Henry Lamb added the extras to make it 7-0.

Two penalties from the Witney fly-half, either side of three points from the boot of Banbury’s Alex Stevenson, saw them extend their lead to 13-3.

And on 36 minutes it was 18-3 when the ball was kicked ahead and centre Jake Thomas won the race to go over for an unconverted try.

Witney were reduced to 14 men at the end of the half, with Callum Godfrey sin-binned for team offences.

After the break, Banbury did cross the line, but the ball was held up.

However, they were successful on 57 minutes when Josh Deegan intercepted a pass to score an unconverted try and make it 18-10.

They reduced the deficit to three points when a maul led to Goode running in to score.

Banbury were camped inside Witney’s 22 for the rest of the match, but the hosts held strong to claim victory.