CHIPPENHAM carried off from where they left at Royal Wootton Bassett as they thumped fellow South West One East high-flyers Salisbury 70-19.

It was a convincing home win as second-placed Chippenham put 12 tries past their Wiltshire rivals, who slipped to fourth.

Clinical timing and confident carrying meant that Chippenham secured their 10th try bonus point of the season, and the full five points from the game.

A frantic first 10 minutes resulted in three tries for the home side – a trademark show and go from Jacob Unwin; a brilliant, rapid-reload, team try finished by winger Matt Dickens; and a neat move off the back of a scrum, resulting in a walk-in for winger Dan Carter.

After an outside arc by hooker Aaron Clark, reeling in the Salisbury winger in the process, Dickens went over for his second and an early bonus-point try.

A swerving run from Matt Bye and quick recycling enabled blindside flanker Andy Rossiter to add another try.

Salisbury went over for their first of the day after sharp offloads. But soon after, a rampaging five-metre scrum ended with skipper Sam Saunders rolling over the visitors’ line for Chippenham’s sixth try of the half.

The second half continued in the same vein. Five minutes in and a mid-air rip from winger Dickens and a 40-metre dash, with a dive at the end, brought him his hat-trick try.

Outside centre Sean Johnson then took a low offload from winger Carter to finish for his first try of the season.

Chippenham’s defence twice cracked under Salisbury pressure.

However, the home side regained control and, after a break by full-back Will Waddington down the centre and quick recycling by scrum-half Tom Fogarty, debutant Dan Wainwright went over in the right corner.

Carter added another try, before captain Saunders finished off more rapid reloads from the forwards with his second try of the day under the posts. Finally, Waddington completed the onslaught in the right corner.

Royal Wootton Bassett slipped to a 6-0 defeat in murky conditions at Grove.

The Ballards Ash men have now lost their last two.

They suffered a double blow when second row and skipper Dave Hogg had to leave the field with a knee injury, followed shortly after by centre Michael Barrell, who suffered an ankle injury.

In the 26th minute second row Sam Robinson received a yellow card after an offence at the ruck, and Grove converted the penalty to lead 3-0 before the match descended into a series of flare-ups.

Bassett were reduced to 13 men when Kyle Lovell was yellow-carded at another breakdown before an injury-time incident saw prop Simon Anderton sin-binned with a Grove opponent.

In the second half Bassett took control but they were let down by persistent stoppages and poor handling in the backs. Both sides were again reduced to 14 when prop Chris Rowland and an opponent were yellow-carded.

Bassett continued to press but a late Grove breakaway in added time saw them add a second penalty to wrap up the win.