Eton Manor fell to defeat in a mid-table battle at the weekend, losing 26-10 away at Old Priorians in London 1 North.

Elliott Brown opened and closed the scoring with two unconverted tries, but the home side took control in between the two Manor scores as they aim to close the gap on Amersham & Chiltern in the table.

The away side started strongly, despite kicking into a heavy wind, and they almost created the first scoring opportunity when good work from Cameron Dutch and Garth Tucker resulted in a scrum which halted the attack.

Priorians settled into the game though and won a penalty between the posts after a sustained period of pressure but, luckily for Manor, it was missed, and the game remained scoreless.

It was Manor’s turn to attack next and they made it count on this occasion as Brown won the race to Dutch’s kick and sprinted in at the corner but was unable to kick in the conversion.

Priorians hit back straight away though as they profited from a Manor knock on and went over to take the score to 7-5 after 25 minutes.

The hosts really turned up the pressure at the end of the first half, taking a commanding 19-5 lead into the break after a further two tries, one of which was converted.

The wind subsided in the second half and the home side took advantage of that, putting Manor under immediate pressure and scoring under the posts for another seven points five minutes into the second half.

Manor regained some control as the half wore on and they made good use of their possession when, from an attacking lineout, Dutch kicked the ball beyond the defensive line for Brown to once again chase and go over.

The conversion was missed again, but it still meant Manor narrowed the gap to 26-10.

That was how the score stayed, though, after a poor quality affair following the final try, and the result leaves Manor 9th in the table.

With a rest week next weekend, Manor’s next game sees them host Rochford Hundred on Saturday, March 23.