THE long wait is over for Devizes as fly-half Andy Thompson’s boot brought them their first league win since September.

The Saddlebacks had lost 14 straight league matches since the October 4 draw at Buckingham but belatedly gave themselves a glimmer of hope of avoid the drop.

Grove arrived having defeated leaders Chippenham but the hosts made the better start and Thompson booted them in front courtesy of a penalty.

Devizes held the upper hand in the scrum, but Grove countered with a quickly-taken tapped penalty and shifted the ball wide to go for an unconverted try.

The home side’s forwards helped rally the side, putting the pressure on a scrum close to the Grove line and marching their opponents back for number eight James Gaiger to bundle over from close range.

Thompson’s territorial kicking penned back Grove after the break and, from one lineout, a driving maul trundled upfield and the ball was whipped out for Thompson to strike a drop goal from 35 metres.

That lead was extended as Grove were penalised for crossing and Thompson landed a long-range kick to take his side 14-5 ahead.

In a nervous finale, Grove crossed the try line again as the home side lost concentration to cut their deficit to four points.

The Saddlebacks’ lineout also began to falter but Thompson’s boot remained on form, the fly-half adding two more penalties to stretch the advantage to 10 with six minutes remaining.

Grove got the final score of the day bursting down the wing setting up a tense final few moments, but Devizes saw the game out.