Alton bag their first home win after seeing off an understrength Old Wimbledonians.

The Anstey Park faithful have had to wait a while for a London 3 home win but Alton finally obliged, running in six tries as Old Wimbledonians were brushed aside in a largely one-sided contest.

It was a pity, then, that there were so few supporters to welcome Alton's first home success - England's thrilling victory over the Wallabies saw to that.

The game at Anstey Park lacked the fireworks on display at Twickenham but victory was as important to the home side as it was to Martin Johnson's men. There is now a chink of daylight between Alton and the dreaded relegation zone.

The visitors partially recovered after a dismal opening half hour, but they never managed to cope with the Alton forwards' dominance at the scrummage and their relentless rolling mail in particular.

Alton raced into a 20-0 lead courtesy of early tries by Richard Hemmens, John Happel and Luke Parratt, plus a penalty and conversion from Steve Ott as Wimbledonians defence imploded.

Further touchdowns after half time from Jimmy Gay, Matt O'Connor and Will Ford secured the extra bonus point for Alton but Wimbledonians rallied defiantly and ran in three tries through Alex Horley and half-backs Tom Hayward and James Hodgson.

Both sides were forced to ring the changes after injuries and unavailability took their toll.

Wimbledonians in particular were fatally under-powered in the scrummage while Alton fielded four props - skipper Gay finding himself at hooker - and played regular stand-off Christo Arundel at scrum-half.

The teenager acquitted himself admirably while prop Happel and Parratt, the latter moving from hooker to open-side flank, put in exceptional displays.

From the off, the Wimbledonians' forwards were brutally outplayed and while there were some flashes of a fluent running and off-loading game in the second half, they struggled to secure any kind of decent possession. They had their lions in the form of tireless skipper Matt Lucas on the blind-side flank, scrum-half Rob Hayward, full-back Jamie Crone and centre Horley, but it was a damage limitation exercise.

It took Alton just nine minutes to open the scoring, centre Hemmens taking Ott's popped pass to saunter over - Alton had announced their intentions in the build-up to the try, when a relentless rolling maul took them from their own ten-metre line into the opposition 22.

Soon afterwards it was two more rolling mauls, two more tries: first Happel peeled away to score unopposed from close range and Parratt flopped on the ball at the end of another, 20-metre rumble.

Ott's five points from the boot added to Wimbledonians' pain but they were on the scoresheet immediately after the interval when Horley zipped through Alton's midfield defence and galloped over from 20 metres.

Normal service was resumed when Gay converted yet another rolling maul and O'Connor claimed Alton's best try of the day, squeezing over in the right-hand corner after multiple, punishing phases.

Ford completed the scoring for Alton with a pick-and-go from two yards out but Wimbledonians notched two more consolation tries - scrum-half Hayward squeezed over from a ruck after a sparkling break by Crone and stand-off Hodgson added a little more gloss to the scoreline when he darted over in the dying seconds.

A crucial win for Alton, who could improve their position still further with victory at old foes Ellingham and Ringwood this weekend. Like Wimbledonians, E&R were early-season front-runners but have suffered heavy defeats in recent weeks and have slipped back into mid-table.

Alton: Forsyth; O'Connor, Hemmens (Law, 66), Ott, Salmon; McEvoy, Arundel (Hullock, 40); Happel, Gay (c), Ovens (Fleming, 53); Osborne, Olliphant; Greenhalgh, Parratt, Ford.

Tries: Hemmens (9), Happel (19), Parratt (27), Gay (44), O'Connor (58), Ford (71);

Conversions: Ott (2);
Penalty: Ott (24);
Yellow card: Osborne (33), Ford (48).

Old Wimbledonians:

Tries: Horley (41), Hayward (56), Hodgson (80);

Conversions: Hodgson (2).

Referee: Wayne Spencer (Leicester Society).

Other London 3SW results:

Camberley 43 - 5 Ellingham & Ringwood;