ON a bright but cold, winter afternoon, Malmesbury Monks put on their winning habits again to take The Dabchicks unbeaten home record from them by a goal, a penalty goal and three tries, to two tries.

The home side had a heavy, well organised pack, which bore heavily on the visitors and won most of the scrums by pushing the visitors back over their own ball, while heeling their own put-ins easily.

Nigel Thacker and Paul Steen equalled the efforts of Malmesburys Aled James and Tom Neal in the lineouts, and it was only in the last quarter of the game, when the home sides energy was running out, that the visitors superior fitness started to tell, and their back row came into their own.

Before that, the strength and weight of the home sides pack were used effectively in rolling mauls from lineouts and breaks in play, forcing the visitors to work very hard to contain the situation.

Behind the scrums, Malmesburys Steve Brady was forced to play behind a retreating pack, which gave Pete Hughes ample time to supply Beresford with good ball to launch his backs into attack.

On the Malmesbury side, Kristian Arens' speed off the mark and calculated use of miss moves kept the home side on their toes and finally won the visitors the match.

Charlie Longsdon, the Dabchicks' fullback proved a thorn in the visitors side, with fast and elusive entries into Aldbourne's three-quarter line, taking several Malmesbury tackles to stop him. Pearse also led several strong forward rushes. Kris Arens opened the scoring for Malmesbury with a penalty goal after 15 minutes, rather against the run of play.

The visitors then spent most of their time in their own half and gave away several penalties, though Struan Cochrane was unable to capitalise on these mistakes. However a rolling maul developed on the aftermath of one of these kicks and the home sides back line put Joe Salcedas away for a try to make it Aldbourne 5 Malmesbury 3.

Malmesbury opened the second half with a handling move which involved seven players and put Steve Brady in for a try , which Arens Converted. James Lawrence replied for the home side with a try taken from the back of a pushover, which Cochrane failed to convert and it remained 10-10.

The home side began experimenting with short lineouts and miss passing moves to try and get their creative players more ball, but the visitors stretched the defence line, bringing the fullback in and effectively stifled this.

Eventually, Arens made a break into space down the right hand side, King made a long run and passed inside to Hutton who touched down to give the visitors a five-point lead.

Malmesburys Last two scores came from Huw Jones, who took ball from behind loose mauls and made the final metres. The game was played in good spirit, which was emphasised by the Home teams hospitality afterwards.

Malmesbury travel to Colerne on Saturday to play the Dorset and Wilts Two North league leaders. This is an important match for The Monks as they trail Colerne by one point at present.