RELEGATED Reading Abbey’s disappointing South West One East campaign ended with a heavy 60-19 thrashing at runners-up Newbury.

The visitors suffered an early blow as flanker Omar Ellaboudy was sin-binned for a high tackle, Dan Thorne slotting the penalty to put Blues in front.

At the other end, Olly Walton missed with an effort of his own, but his side did go in front when Ben Mitchell hacked ahead and outpaced the Newbury defence to score, albeit injuring his hand in the process.

The hosts struck back, however, and an excellent handling move from inside their own half finished with second row Rory Jones crossing the line and touching down under the posts.Thorne converted and Newbury led 10-5.

Blues came close to another try when full-back Toby Thorne knocked on a pass from wing Jamie Futcher, but minutes later Futcher himself crossed the line for his side’s second try after receiving from Jones.

Thorne failed to convert, but he was successful three minutes later in converting Jones’s second try of the half. This came after a clever tap penalty and break from impressive scrum-half Joe Pigott.

Cameron Golby-Barr was yellow-carded for the home side, but they went into the half-time break 22-5 to the good.

Newbury went further ahead early in the second period when impressive scrum-half Joe Pigott claimed a deserved try, crossing under the sticks to give Thorne a simple conversion and a Josh Love interception gave Blues a fifth try of the afternoon.

Still the Abbey heads refused to drop, and their attitude was rewarded when they scored through captain Sam Hallett (pictured centre), wing Diego Garces de Marcilla Bahlsen landing a lovely conversion to make the score 34-12. Newbury’s response was immediate and after Love went over under the posts, Thorne added another routine conversion.

As the game entered its final quarter Abbey again began to look effective in attack. Ellaboudy made 20 metres with a good run, and after this a magnificent maul took play up to the home line.

Will Bevan moved the ball to the left, and when he was stopped short of the line, Walton picked up and sped over for a well-deserved try. Once again Bahlsen added an excellent conversion and the score was 41-19.

Newbury replied with a converted try from No.8 Alex Millar, and they racked up their half century when the same player ripped the ball from Hallett’s grasp and charged over the line.

Thorne missed the conversion, but he did add the extras to the final try, scored by outside-half Nick Wackwitz.