Oxford's dreaming triers

Oxford 25 Cheltenham 4

BODLEIAN LIBRARY umbrellas, a horse chestnut tree overhanging the corner of a pitch carved out of middle England. It is not quite rugby league as we know it, but these two teams produced something that was recognisable as a game yesterday.

Oxford and Cheltenham are far from being the best sides in the Rugby League Conference, the competition which takes in the empty acres from Chester to the South Coast and thus has more claim to being truly national then anything the code has managed in 103 years.

The game in the north has started to realise its wider responsibilities. Oxford are twinned with Hull from whom they have had coaching assistance, while Cheltenham play in last season's Wigan changed kit, which is probably something to do with their chief executive, Andy Haughton, being the father of the Wigan and Great Britain second row Simon.

Oxford's ambitions are illustrated by the way that they are to start to market their own replica kit next week. "They have come a long way from having to borrow shirts from us," said Ron MacDonald, the chairman of the Oxford Harlequins Rugby Union club, on whose ground near the city centre the Cavaliers play. "There's no clash between the two games because of the different seasons. In fact, players can switch across if they want."

For all that, a game impaired as a spectacle by pouring rain and overshadowed by a neck injury that saw the Oxford full-back, Oz Hicks, stretchered to hospital, was decided by the practised skills of Simon Hill.

The Oxford scrum-half hails from Yorkshire and has played in Whitehaven's Alliance team. Apart from kicking four goals, he also laid on the first try for Kevin Whitley, and scored their second himself, intercepting a kick near his own line and going the length of the field.

Cheltenham looked raw throughout that first half, struggling to string together any possession. Mark Riddel kicked their only points with two penalties, but a late try from Paul Daley and a dropped goal from Hill kept Oxford comfortably in front.

"It was a long way from being the best game we've seen in the Conference this season," said the Conference chairman, Lionel Hurst. "But it was fiercely contested - a typical local derby."

When a local derby means Oxford and Cheltenham as well as Batley and Dewsbury, something is stirring in the shires.

Oxford: Hicks; Fairhurst, Shore, Martin, Woods; Daley, Hill; J Williams, Smallman, Shaw, Shires, Peacock, Whitley.

Substitutes used: Scordi, Lymer, Obart, Flavin, Coleman, G Williams, Fleming.

Cheltenham: Holford; Carter, M Riddel, Massara, Brown; Viggers, Fairclough; I Riddel, Davies, Doherty, Loughran, Wilsdon, Haines.

Substitutes used: Crellin, Swanborough, Morris, Ison, Lewis, King, Mulrany.

Referee: J Craig (Halifax).