CHIPPENHAM chairman Ian Beswick said he was ecstatic after seeing his Chippenham side promoted back to the National Three South West division.

A 20-7 victory over Trowbridge on Saturday was enough to clinch the South West One East division title.

Beswick praised the hard work of his team, who looked to have secured the title back in December as they went 13 games without tasting defeat but a wobble at the end of January, where they lost two in three, meant the title went right down to the wire.

“It’s great news for the club and what we have been working hard to,” said Beswick.

“It is great to bounce straight back up after a terrible season last year and the players have worked hard and they deserve the credit.

“I have spoken to the players and they are all excited about next year and there is a great feeling within the club.

“It just goes to show the big difference between the leagues.

“We come down and the top three or four of this league was our quality, but everybody else in the league was below the quality.

“When we go up now we’ll probably have the same situation where we are in the bottom half struggling to stay there while the top are romping away.”

The hosts got the first points of the afternoon when Trowbridge conceded a penalty at the ruck and Dom Riccio had no problem in adding the first 3 points after 4 minutes.

A driving maul forced a penalty which was taken quickly by Lewis Surry who set off on a spinning run to score his 23rd try of the season.

It was not long before the score was further extended ad the restart failed to go 10 metres and the resulting scrum set up the perfect platform for Mike Beswick to score the games second try.

After the break the visitors gave Chippenham a scare as Shia Bonnick went over the line to reduce the deficit to just six points but John Turner went over underneath the posts to secure the win and the title.

Now Beswick has his sights firmly set on next season and is planning a recruitment drive, starting with a new director of rugby.

“We are about to appoint a director of rugby, one of his roles will be working hard at the young lads coming up from 16 or 17 to play senior rugby and getting them prepared,” he added.

“We will talk to our coaches and make sure they are all happy to continue, which I believe they are, and we will make a recruitment drive.

“Hopefully there will be players in Wiltshire who will want to play at a higher standard and will want to play at Chippenham because of that.”