IT IS six of the best for Marlborough in Southern Counties South as a narrow 17-15 success over Blandford maintained their perfect league start to the season.

The early phases saw the away team put pressure on, but a good break by fly-half James Farrell put Marlborough on the attack.

Farrell kicked ahead and, as the ball stopped just short of the line, a defensive fumble allowed Russ Westcott to pounce on the loose ball to score the try.

Blandford responded with a penalty but handling errors by both teams ensured no further scores before half-time.

The second half saw the Blandford full-back show excellent kicking form to put over a further three penalties and take the lowly visitors into a 12-5 lead.

With both sides having players in the sin-bin, the influential Farrell looked the bigger loss for the home side.

But as Blandford tried to launch another attack, a looping pass was intercepted by James Clancy who was able to run in 50 metres to score under the posts and convert his own try.

Marlborough quickly went on the attack again and good handling skills by prop Feiloaki Ngungutau led to a break by Waisale Navunidakua, who burst through the defence and set up full-back Garth Bari to score out wide.

The home side then lost captain Jack Lynd to the sin-bin for obstruction as Blandford reduced arrears with a penalty, but they held on to preserve their unbeaten start.

Devizes made light work of Dorset Dockers as a superb effort saw the Saddlebacks come out 36-15 winners, their second successive victory.

Travelling without experienced prop Tom Reed due to injury, Ben Wilkinson stepped up into the front row at loosehead, while skipper Josh Gould returned to the fold after missing the previous and there was a long-awaited debut on the wing for Lewis Dodds, while Jorge Wadman returned from injury in the centres.

A nervy first 10 minutes allowed Dockers to take the lead with a penalty, but the visitors got themselves back into it as Andy Thompson levelled with the boot.

With their scrum in the ascendancy, Devizes began to dominate in the loose.

From a scrum inside the Dockers 22, they pushed the hosts back over their try line, with Gould initially held up before touching down from the back of the resulting scrum, Thompson converting.

As the hosts started to lose their discipline, space in the wide channels was exploited with a fine run from Wadman, playing in Dodds who jinked round two tacklers to sprint to the line for a try on debut, Thompson again converting.

The second half continued in a similar theme and another destructive maul allowed Gould to bag his second, Thompson adding the extras.

With Dorset now in yellow card trouble, a lineout was worked towards the back for John Angell to dot down.

Dockers responded with an unconverted try before Devizes got their final score of the game when quick ball released Wadman and Thomspon converted