SWINDON College Old Boys started the party in perfect fashion last weekend by electing to mark their Presidents’ Day with victory over Thatcham.

Mark Lea’s side arrived at Pipers Way on Saturday with a host of festivities planned and they refused to let anything put a downer on their merrymaking as they bounced back to winning ways following three straight defeats with a 15-3 triumph over their Berkshire opponents.

Tucker Blinkhorn starred on the day as he crossed the whitewash twice whilst number 10 Simon Addis successful converted one of Blinkhorn’s scores and also kicked a penalty to see off Thatcham.

Director of rugby Martin Lloyd thought that the margin of SCOB’s victory could easily have been even greater but was nonetheless delighted that his team rose to the occasion.

“Our Presidents’ Day is an important day for us. It’s quite a big social event and we do things like induct all of the newer players into the club with certificates, so it was one we were all looking forward to,” said Lloyd.

“Our president is Tim Waters and we all wanted to have a good night. We got the word out and had quite a good crowd there on Saturday, so it’s great that the players obliged.

“It was a game that we targeted as one that we thought we could win. We played well and in the end, I think we actually should have scored more than we did.

“We got into their 22 plenty of times but just couldn’t finish those moves off and when you’ve not won too many games recently, you don’t quite always have that little bit extra to get the bonus point.”

The only shame for SCOB last weekend was that their third triumph of the season wasn’t enough to lift them off the bottom of the Southern Counties North table.

Despite suffering defeat at Bletchley, Buckinghamshire outfit Drifters clung on to 11th spot courtesy of the bonus point they picked up in their 12-10 reverse.

SCOB have three matches remaining before the end of the season and Lloyd says that his troops will be throwing everything into building on their Thatcham success.

Lloyd said: “We thought that Saturday that it would get us off the bottom of the table but it just shows how important every bonus point is.

“It’s not like Saturday’s game was the last roll of the dice. We’ve got three games left to go and we want to try and pick up as many points as we can from all of them.

“We’ll plod on and try and pull off some more good results.”

Elsewhere, Supermarine were beaten 18-6 by Minety in Dorset & Wilts One North, despite leading 6-3 at half time, Matt Roberts and Garin Garland scoring Minety's tries.