Basingstoke Rugby Club's faint hope of surviving in the league were dealt a crushing blow on Saturday following a heavy defeat at Ampthill.
By coming home empty-handed, ’Stoke are 10 points adrift from fourth from bottom Havant in the National London 3 league.
And with one game left to play, 12th placed ’Stoke go down with fellow league strugglers North Walsham and Diss.
The Down Grange side have played 25 games, winning seven and losing 18, conceding 801 points and only scoring 463.
But hope of season silverware remains as the squad have booked a placed in the Hampshire Cup final for the third season in a row, due to be played on April 30 against Gosport and Fareham.
But the league survival bid ended with a 41-5 defeat away at Ampthill, with the hosts crossing over six times to Basingstoke's one.
Basingstoke started the afternoon keeping their hosts in check. The first score came after 15 minutes through a penalty.
After 25 minutes, Ampthill crossed the line for an unconverted try when a corner penalty kick resulted in a surging drive to the line by the attacking forwards from the lineout.
The scoreline remained unchanged until the dying moments of the first half. A yellow card for Ampthill reduced them to 14 men and ’Stoke kicked the resulting penalty deep into their half.
From the lineout, the visitors put a strong drive towards the line. The scrum half then filtered the ball out to the back row who passed it through the hands.
The score looked inevitable as ’Stoke had an overlap. However, the ball was spilled and picked up by the Ampthill defence and swiftly crossed over at the other end for a converted try.
The 15-0 scoreline at half time quickly went out of ’Stoke control after two quick trys within 10 minutes of the restart.
A quick-tap penalty after ’Stoke were penalised from the scrum resulted in the flanker scoring for a converted try.
And five minutes later, a missed tackle meant the attacking home team burst through the defence inside their own half to run over another converted score.
On 60 minutes, another try was scored in nearly identical fashion. A turnover at the breakdown let the hosts run home from their own half to make it 36-0.
’Stoke suffered a major setback when winger Glen Lewis was taken off due to injury. A short staffed ’Stoke brought on prop Kank Osborne and put flanker Chris Kiernan into the back line.
And with just over 12 minutes to go Amptill scored their sixth try. The ball was passed through the backline, who powered their way to the line, putting the score at 41-0.
’Stoke still persisted and were rewarded with a consolation try three minutes from time.
A loose ball in the ’Stoke half was scooped up by Ashley Paterson, who chipped and chased. A defending Ampthill player then fouled Paterson by pushing him off the loose ball.
The resulting penalty was punched to the corner and from the resulting lineout Steve Drawbridge set up a rolling drive to the line.
Prop Mikele Waqa was then fed the ball and he battered his way through the defence to give ’Stoke an unconverted try.
On Saturday, ’Stoke will play their final game of the season at Down Grange against Staines.
