CHIPPENHAM ended their season with success by lifting the Bath Combination Cup thanks to a 20-14 victory over Keynsham in the final last week.

A crowd of 2,500 watched the South West One East team defeat their South West One West counterparts in a thrilling contest under the lights at The Rec - home of Premiership rugby side Bath.

The even contest began with Chippenham trying to keep the ball alive against a Keynsham team who were happy to control the game and build pressure.

Both sides matched the other stride for stride in the first quarter until a yellow card was shown to Frank Yawayawa for an alleged knock-forward.

Keynsham used the man advantage to build more pressure and Chippenham were forced to show their quality in defence against continual powerful forward attacks.

When Chippenham did get hold of the ball, they used their impressive back row of Ed Hendy, Tim Moon and Foti Faosiliva to march up the field.

Having survived the early onslaught, Chippenham’s Ryan Brown crashed over the line for the opening try with Tom Douglas adding the conversion.

However, Keynsham hit straight back through their powerful scrum pack to even the match at seven apiece going into half-time.

The second half was as tense and evenly-contested, therefore fine margins were always going to make the difference.

Chippenham looked to their bench for inspiration and opted to send on Liam Snape, Nat Parkes and Joe Thomas to increase the pace and work Keynsham around.

The breakthrough came as the match entered the final quarter, the Keynsham fly-half made an interception on the half-way line and sprinted away to score.

But Chippenham’s pace was beginning to tell, and soon Keynsham were back-peddling in defence and conceding penalties.

From one of said penalties, Chippenham opted to kick and Douglas added the three. The Chippenham pressure continued to tell as Keynsham then lost a player to the sin bin.

The Wiltshire side took full advantage as Parkes dived over the line and score - Douglas notched the extras to make it 17-14.

With momentum firmly on their side, Chippenham did not let up and soon Douglas added a further three points from another Keynsham penalty.

The Bristol-based side gathered themselves for one final assault on the Chippenham back-line through a handful of powerful attacks, but a magnificent effort denied Keynsham and Chippenham lifted the silverware.