After an extraordinary 30-minute delay at the start, Oxford Harlequins came from behind to win 36-19 at Dorchester to maintain their 100 per cent record in South West Division 2 East.

The delay was caused when a hydraulic lift behind one of the sets of posts, which had just been painted, suffered an engine failure.

Desperate moves were made to restart the engine with the painter stuck up in the cradle frantically waving his arms.

Finally, the engine was started - much to the relief of everyone concerned.

Quins trailed 12-10 at half-time. Chris Penney landed a penalty and then converted a super try by right winger Martin Nutt, while the home side scored two converted tries.

In the second half, the Quins had the wind advantage, and with their pack taking control, they were able to stretch clear with trries from Nutt, Dave Boreham (2) and Henk Hattingh. Penney added three more conversions.

Grove gave arguably their poorest display of the season as they went down 15-10 at home to Abbey in a mistake-ridden match.

Abbey took the lead when Grove fly half Richard Williams kicked the ball from deep defence to the Abbey right wing who went over for a converted try.

Williams replied with a penalty as Grove kept up the pressure, the forwards pushing Abbey off the ball and scrum half Paul Maryon disrupting their back row.

After 35 minutes, Grove lost the services of prop Pat McBain, who went off with his right eye closed as a result of a punch.

In the second half, Grove took the lead when winger Wayne Coad finished off a good move with a try. Williams converted to put Grove 10-7 in front.

Abbey replied when Williams, from behind his own line, again kicked to an Abbey player, who touched down for an unconverted try, and the Reading side sealed the result with a late penalty.