AT 19-3 up after 25 minutes, Cinderford seemed to be cruising to a bonus point win.

But visitors Bishops Stortford were within a minute of what had looked an unlikely victory when Cindy hooker Nathan Taylor went over for his fourth try of the afternoon at Dockham Road.

The Cinderford eight dominated the first half, winning a number of penalties as they drove Stortford back metres in the scrum.

They opened the scoring after five minutes with a textbook Cinderford try as Taylor dabbed down from the back of a driving maul after five minutes.

It was more of the same as he scored again eight minutes later with Mike Austin, National One’s joint top points scorer, adding the extras.

Connor Lloyd reduced the deficit to nine points when he kicked a penalty for the Hertfordshire men after 18 minutes.

But Taylor and Austin combined for the seven pojnts with 15 minutes of the half left to give Cinderford a 19-3 lead.

With five minutes of the half left, the visitors cut the lead to 11 points when the ball was sent out from a scrum to Joshua Stannard on the wing who dived over for an unconverted try.

Stortford stepped up a gear in the second half but it took more than a quarter of an hour for the scoreboard to move on.

Quick hands to the wing drew the home defence in leaving space for Jake Morris to sprint to the line with Lloyd adding conversion after 57 minutes.

Ten minutes later Alex Rayment dodged the Cinderford defence for a try which was comfortably converted by Powell to put the visitors 22-19 ahead.

Tensions were high during the last 10 minutes but after a long, hard fight against a strong defence, Cindy stuck to what they know best and kicked a penalty into the corner for the line-out, which allowed Taylor to score the winning try out the back of a maul in the 79th minute.

Counties One leaders Cinderford United had to work for their 7-19 win at Old Bristolians.

Tom Sanak scored two tries with one for Louis Jayne. Joe Langbridge kicked two conversions.

Cinderford - Morgan Adderly-Jones, Mason Tonks, Will Baldwin, George Boulton, Will Gilderson, Mike Wilcox, Mike Austin, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, Shaun Knight, Tyler Jerrum, Jack Shields, Matt Lane, Joe Mullis, Harry Hone (capt.) Replacements: Alex Chalkin, Tim Brockett, Dan Hodge, George Angell, Jimmy Williams.