MARLBOROUGH’S fine start to the South West One East season continued at the weekend with a gutsy 37-32 win away to Wimborne.

Victory lifted Marlborough to fifth in the region’s second tier, with 15 points secured from their three wins and one defeat to date.

Off the back of an emphatic win against county rivals Trowbridge a week earlier, Marlborough wasted no time in their quest to bag successive victories when opening the scoring in the opening five minutes.

Will Grant bagged the points with an impressive long-range penalty in testing conditions to open a three-point advantage.

Such is the tough nature of the division, though, Wimborne hit back with a converted try following some poor defending by the visitors.

Marlborough didn’t seem to weather the hosts’ storm well, and were uneasy in defence. But concern was soon erased when Grant scored in the corner and registered a conversion, re-establishing the visitors’ three-point lead.

Again, Wimborne hit back with a penalty before Ben Fulton recorded Marlborough’s second try – which was against converted.

Wimborne then exposed Marlborough’s weak defence, scoring an unconverted try to lead 19-17.

Grant’s penalty handed the visitors a one-point lead, but that turned to a four-point deficit by half-time as an unconverted try was registered by the home side.

The game’s topsy-turvy nature continued in the second half. Henry Webster touched down for Marlborough to hand the visitors a three-point advantage at 27-24.

That disappeared when Wimborne recorded an unconverted try before Lemeki’s Moala’s try put Marlborough back in front at 32-29.

A Wimborne penalty levelled the scores, but that proved to be the last time the hosts registered any points as Ash Horner scored the match-winning try.

Elsewhere, an early red card for Chris Rowland coupled with Phil Bardwell’s controversial sin-bin forced Royal Wootton Bassett to dig deep in their latest match away against bottom club Windsor.

Taking the above into consideration, you can’t blame head coach Alan Low for expressing his feelings of pride after his men recorded a character-building 38-13 win at Home Park.

The 25-point victory stretched Bassett’s unbeaten start to the season to four games – from which they have picked up all 20 points on offer – and leaves them tied at the top of the table with the equally impressive Banbury.

Low was also without the services of Troy Cusack, Joe Pettit, Scott Douglas and Ethan Stock for Saturday’s match.

But the first team’s back-up options performed impressively – making Bassett’s latest win even more sweet.

Low said: “For the guys to turn things around was fantastic, they all did a brilliant job in the first half to weather the storm and compose themselves.

“We did well again in the second half, if a bit dis-jointed at times. But that is to be expected when you’re down to 14 men.

“No one felt any pressure at half time, and we started to put some points on the board afterwards.”

Low expects the squad’s self belief to grow exponentially off the back of Saturday’s win.

And confidence within the first team is no doubt in a strong place.

Low added: “Games like Saturday will help self-belief in the squad grow.

“Even when we’re up against things, we can still perform.”

Meanwhile, Chippenham were beaten 55-15 at Banbury, while Trowbridge were crushed 55-3 at home by Old Centralians.