CHIPPENHAM took sole possession of second spot in South West One East as they powered past Marlow, despite top-two rivals Banbury inflicting a first defeat of the season on runaway leaders Old Patesians.

The home side ran in nine tries at Allington Field in a 59-0 triumph, breaking the visitors' resistance early on as Sam Saunders powered through and over the line.

Soon after, Bradley Doggett added his name to the scoresheet with a rampaging run down the left wing and from the kick-off, Matt Dickens sliced through the line, slick passing between Doggett, Jacob Unwin and Andy Rossiter continuing the surge upfield.

Tom Fogarty took the ball at pace in the opposition 22 and won the foot race to the line.

Then, fly-half Dan Wainwright's cheeky chip over the defence allowed Dan Carter to take the score to 26-0.

Hooker Aaron Clark was the next player on the scoresheet, finishing off an excellent try with superb handling.

In the second half, Doggett intercepted a pass before offloading the ball to Carter who ran in his second of the day.

Also with a double was Charlie Palmer who stormed over twice in quick succession before Doggett added another.

A superb fightback by Royal Wootton Bassett was in vain as they were edged out 23-22 at Stratford upon Avon.

Stratford struck a sixth-minute penalty to lead 3-0 and, as they continued to run the ball from all areas, they went over for the first try in the corner.

A short spell of Bassett pressure ended abruptly when a huge Stratford clearance from their own 22 saw a fortuitous double bounce allow a breakaway score before a third try left Bassett deep in trouble after just 16 minutes.

However, gradually Bassett's forwards began to put the Stratford eight to the test.

A sustained period of pressure in the Stratford 22 saw a series of efforts on the Stratford line with second row Sam Robinson forcing his way over.

The visitors now began to look the more powerful side and scrum-half Tom Fieldsend slotted a penalty to reduce the half-time deficit.

The second half saw almost incessant Bassett pressure as the Stratford forwards tired.

In the 10th minute a sequence of scrums on the Stratford line saw a succession of penalties awarded.

Inevitably, a penalty try followed and Bassett continued to pile on the pressure.

With 10 minutes remaining, a rare Stratford foray saw them win a penalty which was converted.

Veteran prop Chris Rowland went over for a try and Fieldsend converted to cut the gap to a point, but Bassett came up just short.