MILESTONE man Grant Hancox ranked Bournemouth’s two bonus-point victories against Drybrook with their best in the South West Premier campaign.

Lions had to wait until five minutes into added time for scrum-half Sam Hardcastle to deliver their fourth try and the bonus point in Saturday’s 34-10 success.

The win followed the 27-14 triumph in the Forest of Dean at the end of October.

And Hancox said the Drybrook successes had been two of their most important in their promotion pursuit.

He said: “Drybrook are a class outfit who play with serious intensity. They are really organised and have a never-say-die attitude where they will play from wherever on the field they are.

“At this level, that can be a bit rare so when you come up against it, it can be a bit challenging.

“But I definitely rate both wins, here and at their place, as two of our biggest of the season.

“We move on now to a week off and then have Exeter University away in two weeks, who are going to bring pace and intensity and we are really going to have to be on our mettle to beat them.”

First-half converted tries from centre Freddie Gleadowe and fly-half Adam Davies pushed Bournemouth 14-0 ahead before Drybrook’s Mitch Hale pulled back a converted score and Tim Stevenson landed a penalty.

Hancox added a penalty after 28 minutes to stretch their advantage to 17-10 at half-time.

Yellow cards followed for Bournemouth full-back Karim Lynch and inside centre Scott Chislett after 58 and 60 minutes.

However, when both returned Hancox added three more with a penalty on 69 minutes to pass 1,000 points for the club and 200 for the season.

It was then the turn of Drybrook to infringe on 76 minutes with tight-head prop Elliot Beattie sin binned for tackling Hardcastle from a quick-tap penalty.

As a result, Bournemouth sent it to Lynch to score their third try out wide, with Hancox adding a great conversion from the sideline to lead 27-10 in added time.

There was still enough added time for Stevenson to be shown a yellow for coming in at the side of a ruck.

A series of scrums for Bournemouth followed near the Drybrook uprights in the dying moments with Hardcastle eventually sniping over under the posts for the bonus-point try and Hancox easily converted.

The kicker admitted the 1,000-point mark had been in his thoughts.

“It was always in the back of my mind and (club president) Doug Warren sent me an email in the week saying I was on 990 points so it was always there knowing 10 points would take me over that barrier,” said Hancox.

“It is really nice getting through that mark and being a bit of a stat nerd myself I believe it is me and Sam Hardcastle who have both passed that mark for the club, which is nice.”