TROWBRIDGE rounded off their maiden season in South West One East with a 50-35 defeat in an entertaining game away at local rivals Chippenham.

Dan Jeffries’ side finish 11th in the table, having secured their survival from relegation seven days prior with a battling one-point victory at home to Beaconsfield.

The Doric Park team won eight of their 26 fixtures following last season’s promotion from Southern Counties South, but a points difference of just minus 71 indicates that further victories only escaped them by narrow margins.

Elsewhere, Marlborough off a strong first season in the division with a 43-24 victory at home to Swindon to wrap up fourth place in the table – the top-ranked Wiltshire side.

The hosts kicked off proceedings at the Common and made a strong start as Pio Tuwai crossed the whitewash in style before Jake Williams’ conversion made it 7-0 after just four minutes.

Williams added a penalty shortly afterwards, however, Swindon were not going to go down without a fight and they had a good spell of possession in the Marlborough half, although failed to convert that into points.

A Harry Jackson grubber kick then started a rapid Marlborough attack, and from a scrum, Garth Bari meandered his way through to the tryline, converted by Williams.

Five minutes later, Marlborough really began to assert their dominance. Ben Caravou latched onto a loose ball down the left and coasted past the Swindon defence to score a fine try. Williams converted once more.

Swindon responded with a converted try of their own, driving over the whitewash off the back of a huge lineout maul in the corner.

It was Marlborough who had the final word of the first half, though, when Jackson scored a sublime try.

Todd Johnson did brilliantly to keep the ball in play and spread possession to stretch the Swindon defence, where Jackson collected to go over the line. Williams’ conversion made it 31-7 at the break.

Swindon started the second half well and swiftly got their second converted try after a spell camped on the Marlborough line.

However, Marlborough stemmed the pressure with another try of their own. Lemeki Moala broke through and offloaded to Inosi Laqekoro, who then popped the ball to Semisi Rasivo to finish the job.

The game continued to sway back and forth as Swindon scored two more tries in quick succession around the hour mark. Both came from driving mauls, and although the conversion was missed both times, the visitors did at least have a bonus point to their name.

With Swindon piling on the pressure, Marlborough began to slow the game down and finally killed things off with five minutes to go when Rasivo scored his second try of the game before a final Williams kick brought the scoring to a close.

Finally, Royal Wootton Bassett were able to arrest their recent six-match losing run with a gutsy 38-31 final-day victory away at Oxford Harlequins to ensure they finish one place below Marlborough in fifth.