ROYAL Wootton Bassett made it two bonus-point wins out of two at the start of the new South West One East season with a 34-10 success at home to Old Patesians on Saturday.

Bassett’s success at Ballards Ash took them onto 10 points from a possible 10 this season, with only Banbury and Oxford Harlequins able to match that haul.

Elsewhere, Marlborough had also opened the campaign with a five-point win but suffered their first defeat at the weekend after going down 41-14 at Sherborne.

Marlborough had seven first team players missing – two of which had been seconded by Harlequins to play in the Premiership 7s tournament at Northampton Saints’ Franklin Gardens.

From the kick-off, a well-drilled Sherborne team showed they had come to play in front of their home crowd.

Within 15 minutes, Marlborough were down by 10 points due to poor discipline and defending, and by the 25th minute, Sherborne had scored another converted try.

Fortunately, in the last play of the first half, Marlborough scored a well-worked try. A driving maul set up a nice backs move for Russell Westcott to score, with Will Grant adding the extras to cut the half-time deficit to 17-7.

Marlborough started the second half well and were back in the hunt following a strong multi-phase set play which sent Jack Lynd in for a try, again converted by Grant.

The visitors’ newly-found zest was short lived as Sherborne then started to get the upper hand again and scored a good try from a crossfield kick while playing a penalty advantage.

By this time the penalty count against Marlborough was sadly well into double figures, with the next score coming from a Sherborne kick straight in front of the posts after another infringement from the visitors.

Marlborough were forced to play the final 10 minutes a man short after being handed a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, and Sherborne made the most of the numerical advantage to run in another two tries before the final whistle sounded.

Chippenham were also denied a second straight win at the start of the season as they fell to a 23-17 defeat away at county rivals Trowbridge.