Letchworth powered into the Christmas break second in the Regional One South East table after a home win over rivals Harpenden.

It had been the visitors to Legends Lane who had started the day in that position but they were down to fourth by the start of the Christmas break, with Letchworth replacing them thanks to a 29-20 bonus-point success.

The home side opened the scoring first, a penalty slotted by Josh Sharp on seven minutes, and they continued to apply the pressure.

Two line-outs in good position went begging and after a Harpenden attack was stopped illegally, Charlie Parkhouse was given a yellow card.

Harpenden tried to press home their advantage only to be met by a yellow and black wall and when Letchworth finally moved the ball up to the other end, they were rewarded by Kaz Henderson going over in the corner.

Tom Sweeney kicked a penalty from in front of the posts almost immediately to get Harpenden on the board but that was the last score of the half.

The first score of the second half belonged to the home side though.

After winning a line-out in their own half they spread the ball left to Parkhouse who’s pace and footwork did the rest, dotting the ball down without a defender able to lay a finger on him.

Sharp added the extras to make it 15-3 but another three from Sweeney kept Harpenden in the contest.

Although yet again it seemed to do little to help their cause as Letchworth moved the lead out further again.

Good handling put Harvey Howman deep into Harpenden’s 22, and when he was brought down he popped it up for Tom Lewis to crash over just to the right of the posts.

It gave them a 22-6 lead with 30 minutes to go.

Harpenden introduced Dominic Ashwell on the left wing and he provided a threat.

So it was no surprise that when a Letchworth pass went to ground in their own half, Harps pounced and put Ashwell away to score in the corner, superbly converted by Sweeney.

But back came Letchworth and they got a triple whammy of try, bonus point and 10 minutes playing against 14 after a penalty try was awarded for bringing down the maul.

The numbers were evened up though when Richard Stokes was given 10 minutes rest after a scrum and that loss allowed Harpenden to bag a second try, Barnaby Merrett going under the posts and giving an easy conversion.

The final stages saw Harpenden continued to push for a reward but good defence from Howman, Sharp and skipper Liam Fitts meant there would be no further scores.