DORSET Dockers secured a thrilling Southern Counties South triumph over Wimborne – in borrowed kit.

The Potterne Park side were unable to play in their usual flamboyant colours because designated kit man – full-back Chester Clough – failed to bring the strip with him.

And with kick-off looming, the home side gratefully donned the colours of defunct Verwood, the club which merged with Dockers ahead of the 2014-15 campaign.

The kit drama did not appear to affect the hosts unduly as they secured a hard-earned 38-30 victory, John Vickery touching down for a converted score in the closing moments.

Dockers captain Alex Priest told the Daily Echo: "Chester didn't play last week and 10 minutes before kick-off I asked him where the kit was and he didn't know.

"We had been diving about looking for it and David Coy, who is an old member of Verwood, came into the rugby store and dug out some Verwood kit for us, so luckily we had something to play in.

"I had already found some old-fashioned kit but it was different colours so had it not been for David we might have had to wear that inside out!"

Daniel Mallard led the try-scoring for Dockers with a hat-trick while Priest and Joseph Barton also crossed the whitewash, in addition to Vickery.

Touching down for Wimborne were the impressive Tom Moysey (2) – who was forced off injured late on – Sam Leiper and James Mikolajewski. Tom Chaffey added 10 points with the boot.

Having led by seven points at the break, Dockers were just 31-30 ahead in the closing moments until a monster driving maul led to Vickery's try, with Tommy Keir converting.

Priest added: "Wimborne have always been close rivals and given they were sitting near the bottom of the table, we knew they were going to put in a performance.

"They set their stall out early on and we were up against it and had to dig quite deep. As the game progressed we managed to get in the ascendancy and play the way we wanted to.

"In the latter stages it was getting feisty and a couple of sin-bins did not help us. The key was the driving maul from which we scored at the end – that really put the lights out for them."

Wimborne team manager Dan Draper admitted no more could have been asked of the visitors after they pushed Dockers all the way.

He said: "I’m extremely proud of our guys as they fought hard all the way and made the game a real contest.

"It was frustrating for us to be denied a second bonus point but at the end everyone felt they had done everything they could to get the result.

"Getting a single bonus point was a small consolation for the guys that had fought really well.

"Now we will dust ourselves down and prepare for our home fixture against Marlborough a week on Saturday.

"If we show the same amount of passion, commitment and desire as we did against Dockers, I’m confident we can achieve a positive result."