Wootton Bassett slipped to a narrow 12-6 defeat at the hands of Devizes in Saturday's all-Wiltshire contest in Southern Counties South.

The old 'game of two halves' adage certainly rang true as Bassett saw a 6-0 half-time lead evaporate in the spring sunshine.

Playing with a strong wind at their backs at Ballards Ash, the home side continually threatened the Devizes line.

Too often, though, the final pass or catch eluded them and this thwarted a number of their numerous attacking moves.

Their pressure yielded two penalties from the boot of full-back Duncan Fulling but it was a poor return for all their first-half possession and enterprise.

The second half saw Devizes playing with the wind and this enabled the visitors to pin Bassett in their own half.

And from this pressure they managed to slot three penalties to put them 9-6 ahead with only five minutes remaining.

Again the final pass eluded Bassett and a last-minute Devizes drop goal sealed the victory.

Bassett coach Graham Stickler said: "Each team only scored when they had the wind advantage, and unfortunately Devizes had more converted penalties than we did."