Dorset & Wilts Two North

Cricklade 49

Chippenham III 10

CRICKLADE maintained third place in the league with an impressive victory against Chippenham thirds who are one place above them.

Cricklade started quickly and forced the home team to concede a penalty which skipper Nathan Waite put away despite the strong swirling wind.

From the restart Cricklade crashed forward and had the away defence in all sorts of trouble before Waite found the way through for the home side's first try ,which he then converted.

Shortly after the restart Chippenham conceded another penalty as they desperately tried to repel the marauding forwards and agile wings, and once again Waite stepped up to secure the points.

With points coming easily the home side eased up a bit and Chippenham started to have more say in the game.

However play became broken and scrappy and at one of these breakdowns Cricklade’s Mike Murray scooped up the loose ball and ran 50 yards to score. Chippenham’s only high point of the half came when their scrum got Cricklade’s going backwards and they got the ball over the line.

Having seen the Chippenham conversion go begging, the home team came straight back at them, but had to settle for a penalty which Waite popped over without fuss.

Cricklade played into a strong wind for the second half, but despite that they still managed a scoring spree.

The first of three quick tries came from Mitch Bryan when he took an offload five yards out. Murray added his second after an amazing run from Nick Bond which left the ground behind him littered with floundering visitors. The third was delivered by veteran Simon Howse who only came on for a cameo appearance after being unavailable for several months.

Cricklade fumbled the restart ball and then compounded their error by letting the visitors' full back dance through tackles to score.

But Cricklade rounded off the afternoon by earning a penalty which they took quickly to Bond, and he then outpaced the now demoralised defence to score.