Dorset & Wilts Div One North

Chippenham II 8

Minety 37

MINETY maintained their pursuit of the league title with a wholehearted demolition of Chippenham seconds in their penultimate game of the season.

The visitors had the best of the early exchanges skipper Jack Ward sliced through the defence with a show-and-go for the first try of the game.

Again capitalising on turnover ball, flanker Steve Brown made a decisive break and drew the full back before offloading to Tom Fitzcharles, who sped in for Minety’s second.

Chippenham’s only points of the half came from a penalty goal, making it 3-10 at the break.

Clean ball from an attacking line-out and quick rucking got the visitors on their way in the second half.

When Ward flipped the point of attack, his fancy footwork broke the line and a well-timed pass set winger Dale Langdown away for a dash to the corner and try number three.

When Minety failed to gather the restart, though, the Chippenham pack pounced on the loose ball and swarmed through for a try.

The rest of the game was all Minety. The front row of Martin Coe, Wes Clamp and Andy Hurley completely out-scrummaged their opponents, and when the home side fumbled line-out ball, Tom Windle was on hand to snap it up and launch an attack.

Full back Robin Greenway joined the line at pace, sold a dummy and broke through for the vital fourth, bonus-point try.

A break and an offload by Max Smith set up winger Duncan Simpson, who sped through a crowded defence for a try, skilfully retaining his balance despite a last-ditch tap-tackle from his opposite number.

Fine running and rucking by Gareth Peirce and Andrew Hibbard caused Chippenham no end of problems, and when they conceded a penalty, Ward calmly banged it over.

Centres Radcliffe and Church gained further territory for Minety, which Ward consolidated with a sneaky grubber kick to touch. Chippenham failed to secure ball from the resulting line-out, allowing Smith to snaffle possession, flatten the scrum half and land Minety’s sixth and final try of the afternoon.