Witney took their winning run to eight games in South West 1 East with a thrilling 25-24 victory at Grove.

However, they were let off the hook as Grove’s Dave Johnson missed a late conversion after Cash Chilvers’ 75th-minute try.

Witney sneaked a 15-14 win over Grove in the reverse fixture in November, and Saturday’s encounter turned out to be just as nail-biting.

The visitors broke the deadlock on seven minutes when James Monks powered over the whitewash.

But the hosts were level as lock Jack Horrocks powered over on 11 minutes.

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Almost instantly, Witney got their noses back in front as flanker Richard Haire emerged from a driving maul to score. Phil Thomas converted to give the visitors a 12-5 lead.

Thomas then extended Witney’s lead to ten points with a drop goal.

Grove looked in trouble as the visitors began to dominate territorially, but the hosts pushed Witney back and scrum half Joe Chilvers’ reverse pass sent Guy Nicholl through to score.

Nicholl converted to reduce the deficit to three points at half-time.

Grove flanker Chilvers was sent to the sin bin on 52 minutes, but despite this they forced their way into Witney’s half and Johnson went over the line before adding the extras.

However, Grove’s lead only lasted a matter of minutes as Henry Lamb went over in the corner.

With only a point separating the sides with nine minutes to play, Lamb’s grubber kick sent Monks through a heavily packed Grove defence to score.

However, Grove battled their way up to Witney’s 22 and Chilvers crashed over to make it 24-25.

Grove looked set to secure the victory, but Johnson’s kick flew wide of the posts.