WYCOMBE suffered Bucks Cup heartbreak as they lost their semi-final match by just one point away to Buckingham.

After playing into the wind in the first half and coming out only seven points behind, Wycombe knew they could come on strong to win.

But despite pulling it back to a one-point margin with eight minutes to go, Wycombe failed to score again though they laid siege to the Buckingham line and were knocked out 22-21.

Captain Rob Dorling said: "The guys are absolutely gutted. We set ourselves up to win the game by keeping it close at half time, and with the wind in our backs in the second half we should have romped home.

"We threw it away. Bucks boys stuck at it and worked hard but we really should have won that one."

The game plan of containing the Buckingham team in the first half looked to have gone awry as three tries to one put Buckingham 19-5 clear.

But the Wycs forwards struck back just before half-time, having already helped Dorling score, and prop Sean Molloy powered over to make the half-time score 19-12.

Sloppy play helped Buckingham gain a ten-point lead with a penalty after the restart but a Toby Radford penalty gave the Wycombe team momentum.

They powered forward but were unable to find a try.

Radford hit two more penalties to set up the rousing finale but the Wycs team just could not find the space to create a try or set up a drop goal as Buckingham held on to claim a final berth where they will come up against either Marlow or Amersham & Chiltern.

Coach Frank Manning said: "It just seems as though it wasn't meant to be. We took a gamble after winning the toss and it appeared to have worked - I was very confident turning around only seven points adrift.

"Nice, tight, simple rugby would have won that, but we got anxious and forced ourselves into making mistakes. As for Buckingham, we wish them well in the final."

In league action, Marlow romped home 67-5 away at Redingensians to maintain their 100 per cent away record.

Fred Gorringe-Smith got the first of Marlow's eleven tries as they blew away the opposition.

They led five tries to nil at the break thanks to further scores from Guy Ayland, Jaksa Lovreta, Mike Lunjevich and then Gareth Pugh with a try involving every Marlow player.

The second half then featured more of the same as tries from Lovreta, Lunjevich, Dan Sumpter (two) and Murry Walker (two) gave Marlow their 67-5 win.

Party-poopers Stow gatecrashed the President's Lunch as they beat Amersham & Chiltern 18-14.

Chiltern dominated the game but failed to convert chances into tries, while Stow had two chances to score tries and took them both.

Three penalties from Dave Choules kept the scoreboard ticking over for Chiltern but they were unable to score again until Sean Jarrold drew the cover for Brian Richardson to score a try in the corner.

February 14, 2002 13:38