BICESTER continued their recent good form to win 27-5 at Didcot in the preliminary round of the Oxfordshire Cup.

Dan Walker’s 17th-minute penalty put the visitors ahead, but Didcot replied moments later as Callum Cooke raced away for an unconverted try.

Walker kicked another penalty as Bicester regained the lead, before his neat cross-kick to the right was gathered by Charlie Bethell to touch down.

The fly half added a conversion to make it 13-5 and the visitors never looked back.

Bicester increased their lead as half-time beckoned, Liam Walker sprinting clear to score his side’s second try, Dan Walker adding the extras.

The visitors were firmly in control, but this was threatened when the fly half was sin-binned for a tip tackle 12 minutes after the restart.

Bicester continued to attack and managed to prevent their opponents from cutting the deficit during the ten minutes they were down to 14 men.

And when the fly half returned they stretched their lead.

Francois Weise was held up on the try line following a Bicester scrum, but Ollie Cassidy stretched across for the visitors’ third try.

Dan Walker’s third conversion completed the scoring, with Bicester visiting Oxford University Greyhounds in the first round next month.

Oxford Harlequins reached the next stage without kicking a ball as Friday’s match at home to Stow-on-the-Wold was cancelled due to the visitors being unable to field a team.

They will play Oxford Brookes University in the first round, while Witney will host Chinnor 2nd after their match with Grove was cancelled when the latter could not fulfil the fixture. 

Elsewhere, Chipping Norton ran in five tries to beat Wheatley 31-10 in the first round of the Oxfordshire Shield.