Southern Counties North: Grove's chances of promotion were ended in the cruellest fashion when they had two tries disallowed during their 22-12 defeat away to Henley Wanderers on Saturday.

Before the game, it seemed that Stow would secure second place - and the promotion play-off spot - behind champions High Wycombe.

But Stow's surprise defeat by Beaconsfield meant that the winners of the Henley v Grove clash would secure the all important runners-up position.

By securing their controversial victory, Wanderers seemed set to visit Frome - the second club in Southern Counties - in this Saturday's play-off.

But a dramatic twist was added by news that Henley are still awaiting the result of an appeal against a possible two-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

Should the appeal fail, then Stow would, after all, take on Frome - and Henley would miss out.

Henley Wanderers secretary David Shove said yesterday they were they still waiting to hear from the league about the appeal, which was made about six weeks ago.

Any decision would not affect Grove, who were angry that centre George Rautenback had two apparent tries disallowed by the referee, one of them when the official changed his mind.

Despite these decisions, Grove led 9-6 at half-time thanks to two penalty goals and a drop goal from fly half Richard Williams.

A penalty apiece - Grove's again came from Williams - made it 12-9, but the visitors then began to tire.

After Grove had prop James Eckert was yellow-carded for an alleged punch, Henley took advantage with a try and two penalty goals to win the game and leave Grove disgruntled and dispirited.

Witney recorded their highest league score of the campaign when beating Slough 54-23 - their tenth successive league victory.

There was no indication of such a scoreline when Slough took an early 8-0 lead.

From this point, Witney, whose pack achieved dominance in both scrum and line-out, took charge and built up a 21-7 lead by half-time, with tries from Ben Rollinson, Will Worrall and James Lamb, all of which were converted.

Chris Courtnage, who was starting his first league game for the first team, was next on the scoresheet as Witney ran riot.

Further tries followed from Owen Fowler, Rollinson, Worrall and Courtnage.

A revamped Bicester side finished a disappointing campaign on a high note with a 23-12 victory over basement boys Phoenix.

Two drop goals by fly half Richard Lee gave Bicester a 6-5 advantage in an evenly-contested first half .

Though Phoenix did take the lead 20 minutes after the break, Bicester, replied with tries from Adam Spencer (2) and Darben Hulme, as the over-stretched Phoenix defence wilted under the incessant pressure.

Steve Risbridger added one conversion.

So Bicester, who are relegated, now have something to build on for next season in the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premier Division.