High Wycombe made the perfect start to 2019 with a thumping 46-17 victory over Stow-on-the-Wold in the Southern Counties North Division.

The visitors began brightly and were 12-0 ahead thanks to tries from Ollie Fennell-Wells and Tom Bosley and two excellent conversions from Matt Wardle.

Wycombe went further ahead when skipper Tom Boardman scored a solo try in the corner to make it 17-0.

Wycombe's day got better when they were awarded another penalty in midfield as Stow didn’t release the ball. Instead of kicking to touch, Wycombe surprised their opponents and a raking pass from Jake Banton found Bosley who went over for 22-0.

Banton then got the try his performance deserved when he showed some great pace to score before Bosley completed his hat-trick to make it an astonishing 34-0 at the break.

Initially Wycombe started the second half well with a good break from Zach Gregory taking play up to the half-way line. Unfortunately, his pass didn’t go to hand and Stow were able to gain possession. The home team upped the tempo and carried hard into the Wycombe defence and after some good continuity scored in the corner to make it 34-5.

To be fair to the home side, they made a game of it in the second half and as Wycombe's level dropped they clawed it back to 34-17.

Wycombe regained their composure and from a lineout in midfield some strong carries took play into the Stow half. With the defence scrambling, Wardle spotted a gap and made a break and fed the ball to Michael Fradgley who carried hard to the five metre line. He was able to offload the ball back to Wardle who threw a long ball out to Banton who went over to score. With Stow pressing for the bonus point try, Wycombe managed to turn over the ball and spotting the space out wide, Wardle put in an accurate cross-field kick. The ball was well taken by Banton on the halfway line, he cut inside to beat the covering defence to score under the posts and make it 46-17.

Wycombe now face Wallingford at home in the league on Saturday (kick off 2pm).