ROYAL Wootton Bassett made the most of home comforts as they dispatched Grove 47-7 on Saturday afternoon.

Fin Dewar will take the plaudits with a hat-trick of tries, in addition to efforts from Chris Pattinson, Kyle Lovell, Sam Robinson and a penalty try.

Skipper David Hogg got one conversion before being subbed off through injury, as Tom Fieldsend deputised with five conversions. “We were comfortable in the first half and then in the second, we took our foot off of the gas a little bit and scored a few tries,” said team manager, George Loughlin.

“The bad news is our skipper Dave Hogg, who has just returned from injury, took a knock.

“We have a few games left this season, if we can win two of the last three games then we could finish in the top half which would be great.

“Currently we are eighth and we always said mid-table would be great, but if we could get top half then that would be the icing on the cake.”

Bassett will now turn their attention to a much tougher ask, as they travel to second-placed Banbury this evening.

Loughlin says they will take a strong on their travels despite being without captain David Hogg, who picked up a knock in their weekend win.

“Grove huffed and puffed but they weren’t really that good. Banbury still have an outside chance of winning the league.

“They will have their top side out tonight. It will be a really tough game and we will be sending the best side that we can.

“We will have a pretty good side out. You always travel in hope, we will have a good side but I would think we’ll be up against it.

“It’s nice to still be playing competitive games but not on a Wednesday night, to be fair they would probably be stronger on Saturday.

“Ideally you wouldn’t have the fixture pile up that we have at the moment, at our level, although we have good medical and s decent squad, it doesn’t go down that far.”

Elsewhere in the division, Swindon’s recent resurgence continued this weekend as they claimed a 33-26 win over Bicester at home.

In the Southern Counties South, Swindon College Old Boys were unable to return to winning ways, as they lost 18-10 away to Yeovil at the weekend.

There was better news for Supermarine in Dorset & Wilts One North as they were 22-15 winners at home to Trowbridge II.