STEVE Dixey suffered a back injury as Grove’s match against Oxford Harlequins was abandoned at Marston Ferry Road.

Just five minutes into the second half, the prop suffered a muscular problem while in a scrum, with the south Oxfordshire side leading 11-8 at the time.

Dixey was unable to move and, with light fading and 35 minutes still to play in the South West 1 East clash, referee Nathan Howarth called a halt to proceedings.

An ambulance arrived at the ground to take him to hospital.

As less than 60 minutes of the game had been played, the match will be rescheduled.

It had been a close tussle before Dixey’s injury.

Despite Sam Watkinson’s penalty, Grove took an 11-3 lead, thanks to Luke Matthews’s try and two Sam Vaughan penalties.

Quins’ Adam Neal had earlier been sent off for an off-the-ball incident, but Jack Robinson’s unconverted try had given the hosts some hope before the abandonment.

Witney impressed in beating Swindon 41-12 away from home.

The west Oxon side took a 24-0 lead inside half-an-hour, thanks to Matt Clarke and Charlie Dyde scores, as well as a penalty try.

Henry Lamb converted all three and kicked a penalty.

Swindon hit back, though, with Richard White and Josh Haynes going over the try line.

But Witney made it 27-12 at the break, thanks to a Lamb penalty.

The hosts could not make their territory and pressure count in the second half.

Instead, Witney wrapped up victory with late tries from Lewis Collins and George Lewis. Lamb converted the first.

  • Highlights courtesy of Your Sport Swindon's YouTube channel

Banbury recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season when beating Reading Abbey 18-10.

Ian Isham danced his way over and an Ed Phillips penalty made it 10-0.

Phillips then cancelled out an Abbey penalty and the scrum half set up Jack Briggs to cross and make it 18-3.

Abbey had two players sin-binned, but Banbury could not take advantage and suffered the same fate, with the yellow card for Chris Phillips resulting in a converted penalty try.

The visitors, though, closed the game out for victory.