MINETY made a winning return to action in Dorset & Wilts One North as they claimed a 20-12 success at home to Chippenham II.

The villagers put together a series of fine passages of play early on and were rewarded when Garin Garland kicked them in front via a penalty.

Chippenham came back strongly and when Minety lost their own lineout close to their tryline, the visitors took full advantage to cut through and score a try to take a 5-3 lead into half-time.

The second half saw Minety attacking downhill and early pressure led to a penalty, but the kick drifted wide.

A kick and catch by Will Mason pushed the home side into the Chippenham 22 again, and the subsequent pressure resulted in a penalty in front of the posts, which Garland coolly slotted to edge Minety back in the lead.

The match took an unexpected turn on the hour mark when Chippenham cleared the ball quickly from a retreating scrum and then fashioned a fine converted try through the backs.

With time against them, Minety had to respond, and a break by Mason was ended by a high tackle, with Garland reacting quickest to scurry over under the post for a try he converted himself.

The game was then decided following sustained defensive pressure from Minety, with the ball going loose and Matt Stone pouncing to pick it up and run through unopposed for a try converted by Garland.

Elsewhere, Sutton Benger claimed their third home victory of the season, edging out Pewsey Vale 15-12 in a closely-fought game.

Pewsey got off to the strongest start and looked to stretch the Benger defence whenever possible. After shipping the ball wide, they broke through the defence to score the opening try.

Benger looked for a response and Ollie Maher found a gap in the defence before offloading to George Dent, who then found Sam Llewellyn to run in his first try for the club, converted by Maher.

The lead was short-lived as Pewsey scored a converted try in the corner after a sustained period of pressure to lead 12-7 at half-time.

Both sides seemed to neutralise each other in the second half and it took something special to break the deadlock as Benger’s Charlie Kinglsey delivered. Collecting the ball in the centre of the field, he broke through many attempted tackles on his way to the tryline to level the scores.

Pewsey were them stung by two yellow cards, but Benger were unable to capitalise on the advantage and soon found themselves a man down too when Dan Finner was sin-binned.

When Benger missed two penalties, the game looked like it was heading for a draw, only for the hosts to be awarded a third kick 45m out. This time, captain Callum Hartford took over duties from the tee and he found the distance and accuracy to snatch the win for his side.

Finally, Calne remain on one win this season after going down 35-12 at Warminster.