No stopping Swindon as Witney are put to sword (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

No stopping Swindon as Witney are put to sword

Swindon continued their strong Southern Counties North push by defeating Witney 25-20. The Greenbridge Road side are one of only two teams to remain undefeated, with Redingensians on top due to their superior points difference.

Swindon started efficiently and Neil Maycock opened the scoring with a superbly taken penalty before he added another to make it 6-0.

A mistake in Swindon's midfield saw Witney gifted a try, but the home side responded with a try from centre Paul Wakefield to make it 13-5 at the break.

Captain Scott Chapman and prop Nick Brooks added further scores and although Witney were gifted another score Swindon were good value for victory.

n Chippenham's stay in South West One is looking like it could be a short one after they slipped to their third defeat in as many weeks, 24-3 at Basingstoke.

Chippenham gave a good display in the first half, despite having to make an early change with Simon Drage coming on for the injured Mark Livesey.

Basingstoke led 6-3, two penalties to one, but took command after the break.

Chippenham's head coach Rob Alford said: "I thought we played well up to half-time but the second half was woeful.

"We just did not turn up and we were punished. As in previous games, the concentration went, passes went astray and Basingstoke took advantage. Game over.''

"Tomorrow's training session will be a lock-in and there will be some searching questions being asked and I will be looking for some honest answers.

"We can hold our own in this league but there is only so much that can be done on the training pitch.

"At the end of the day, it is how the players perform on Saturday afternoon that counts and this performance was not good enough.''

n Swindon College Old Boys suffered their second defeat in Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premier Division as they crashed 29-21 at home to Phoenix.

The game was lost in the first half in which a lack lustre and lethargic College side seemed content on giving the ball to the opposition at any and every opportunity.

The visitors ran in three converted tries in the first 30 minutes to give them a healthy 21-0 lead and the Old Boys also had scrum-half Anthony Norman sent to the sin-bin after wrestling with his opposite number.

However, College responded by stealing their opponents' lineout, captain John Godsell driving over for the score and Mark Lea converting to cut the gap before half-time.

College made interval changes, Adam Williams coming on to replace Woody Briggs in the second row, No 8 Matt Mckee moving out to the wing to replace Gareth Hollis and veteran Tony Brant coming into the back row.

And McKee steamrollered the Phoenix defence to bring his side back within one score of the opposition with Lea kicking an impressive convertion from the touchline.

Lea was the villain 10 minutes later though as he also visited the sin-bin for a petulant act of retaliation.

Phoenix capitalised on the advantage of the extra man with an easy try as the College ran out of defenders.

However, the half-time changes of manager Martin Peaple proved correct as McKee battered his way through for a second, Greig O'Brien adding the extras.

But Old Boys were punished as they gave away a silly penalty and their opponents punished them with the resulting shot at goal.

Hooker Adam Davis also went to the bin late on.