DESPITE having to field four colts Royal Wootton Bassett were able to extend their winning run nine games with a convincing 40-10 win at Thatcham.

Joe Pettit, Jake O’Neil, Tom Fieldsend and Connor Tomley all stepped up to fill gaps as Bassett shuffled their front row but it did not hinder the charge from Ballard’s Ash outfit.

Though things did not start well. Thatcham roared into 10-0 lead after 25 minutes, but the visitors had a four point lead at the half. Hamish Forbes-Keith and Alexander Norcross both went over, with David Hogg adding the extras to make it 14-10.

The second half scoring was all Bassett. Gavin Ougan and Hogg both scoring on long runs, having forced interceptions in the Bassett half. Sam Robinson’s crash-ball try and a late Duncan Fulling effort completed the rout. Hogg missed the final conversion, his only two-point failure of the day.

Bassett skipper Tim Gallimore, one of the regulars missing with injury, was watching from the sidelines and was thoroughly pleased with the efforts of his teammates.

“It was outstanding, it was rearranged so we had a lot of frontline players missing, we had to call on the depths of the squad and the boys that came in were absolutely fantastic.

“Everyone was pretty happy as Thatch are a good side, a team that we rate. To go down there and win convincingly with so many changes really does bode well.

“From 20 minutes onwards we pretty much dominated the game.”

Bassett’s run is impressive and leaves them seven points off High Wycombe at the top of Souhern Counties North.

Gallimore is refusing to let his teammates at Ballard’s Ash get ahead of themselves despite their hot form, remaining firm in his belief it would take something special to haul in the league leaders.

“The boys are buzzing and can’t wait for the next game,” he added.

“We’ve got a lot of tough fixtures ahead of us, we’ve got three of the top five to play and two of those away from home.

“The gap between us and High Wycombe probably means we’d have to win all our games to get promoted but we’ll give it a good go.

“There’s plenty of rugby still to be played, all we can do is follow our own destiny.”