Merton moved into the semi-finals of the Surrey Bowl with a deserved, if not easy, victory after an entertaining match at Englefield Green.

Having not played at home since January, the Morden Rec outfit again found themselves on their travels, and did so without their skipper, Max Kohn, out with a broken collar bone, along with Ed Lovatt, Josh McNamara, Chris Corby, Nick Ramsey and Tim Rossiter.

Promoted to the squad from the 2nd XV were John Casey, Scott Newark and Gareth Bench, a reshuffle in the back division seeing Raonull MacKinnon move up to fly-half to join the returning James Newbury.

Although falling behind early on and conceding three first-half tries, the visitors fought back with scores from Glenn Williamson and Alan Power occurring in between the Egham efforts.

In the second-half, with Newark replacing MacKinnon, who moved to full-back, Merton took the initiative and, despite conceding a couple of scores, they fought back with Power securing a hat-trick, Williamson a second, and further tries to Luke Tabb and Jimmy McLoughlin.

Merton now face Old Glynonians in the semi-final, which will be played midweek before the Final on 2nd May.

New players, of all standards, are welcome to attend training on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm, under floodlights, at Morden Recreation Ground, Faversham Road, Morden. For more information, call Jack on 07970 166958.