MINETY saw their progress in Dorset & Wilts One North brought to an unceremonious halt as they subsided to a 24-8 defeat at Trowbridge 2nd on Saturday.

After a bright opening, which saw centre Tom Windle and winger Chris Rule held up metres from the Trowbridge line, the visitors failed to sparkle despite taking the lead after just two minutes when scrum-half Garin Garland stroked over a penalty.

A fumble from the restart gifted possession back to Trowbridge, who struck with a rare drop goal.

With the lineout giving quality possession, Minety pushed upfield and only some desperate defensive work kept Rule and Windle out but, despite dominating territory and possession, Minety were unable to add to their score before half-time.

Trowbridge took the lead in the 43rd minute with a fine try. Having moved the ball across the field from left to right, their outside centre cut back and sliced through the Minety defence. The conversion took it to 10-3, but then winger Ben Langridge crashed over for his second try of the season.

However, Minety’s chances of a win were dented in the 55th minute and extinguished just two minutes later.

Missed tackles enabled Trowbridge to break free from their own line for a score and successful conversion. As Minety pushed forward from the restart, the ball was intercepted in midfield and Trowbridge’s centre ran in the deciding try from 50 metres.

Pewsey Vale were beaten 28-26 at Chippenham 2nd in an exciting, fast-paced encounter that could have gone either way.

With the advantage of the slope the home team played most of the first half in Pewsey’ territory, and scored two converted tries.

Just before half-time Pewsey broke out to score two well-taken tries. First fly half James Haynes powered over to score between the posts, Haynes adding the extras, and then full back Will Bowerman put wing Pete Baird in for a try out wide, Haynes’s kick drifting wide.

Playing with the slope, Chris Spence hit the whitewash ten minutes into the second half; Haynes adding the two points.

But lapses in Pewsey’s defence allowed Chippenham in for two converted tries.

With three minutes left, centre James Campbell dotted down between the posts, and Haynes converted.