The turning point in this tight encounter came on the stroke of half time, as Bishops Stortford overturned a 15-3 deficit to come out on top in the first ever meeting between these two teams.
Tom Banks was on target with an early penalty for the visitors, following a yellow card for Cinderford’s Matt Lane. A fine break from home outside-half James Moffat created the space for Sam Goatley to touchdown after eight minutes, with Moffat landing the conversion. The Cinderford forwards were on top at this stage of the game and they increased their lead when scrum-half Jimmy Williams spotted a gap in the visitors defence and raced over for an unconverted try.
Moffat landed a penalty soon afterwards, but right on half-time the match turned in Stortfords favour. After resisting 5 minutes of pressure on the try line Cinderford won the ball and broke to the half way line. Instead of maintaining possession and welcoming half time with a healthy lead they tried one pass too many, and a loose lobbed pass was picked off by the visitors, and centre Johnny Neville went over near the posts, with Banks converting. The momentum shifted at this point with the home side going in to the break with their heads down and the opposition revitalized.
Stortford drew level soon after the interval, with Neville again crossing from close range. The visiting backs always looked dangerous and after excellent handling down the blindside winger Nick Hankin showed good pace to cut back inside and go over for what proved to be the decisive score, with Banks converting.
The final quarter saw both sides going through the phases, but there was to be no further score and Stortford ran down the clock to claim the points.
Cinderford; Eamonn Rees, George Bvuma, Sam Goatley, Luke McMahon, Ollie Whiting, James Moffat, Jimmy Williams, George Porter (Capt.), Henry Walker, James Tideswell, Dale Lemon, Ed King, Matt Lane, Dan Broady, George Evans.
Replacements; Joe Smart, Ciaran Knight, Aaron Ryan, Danny Pointon, Terence Barbarinsa.