TROWBRIDGE suffered a third defeat in succession in South West One East when they went down 27-14 at home to Banbury last Saturday.

The Doric Park side have won only three of 12 games so far as they approach the halfway point of the campaign this weekend and are inside the bottom four in the table.

Elsewhere, Marlborough returned to winning ways with a 41-28 success in a Wiltshire derby away at Salisbury.

Within two minutes of kick-off, Marlborough were behind. After turning over the ball inside their own 22, the visitors dropped a simple pass to allow Salisbury to pounce and charge to the line for a converted try.

Marlborough soon grew into the game and a good spell of territory led to their first try as Avenai Cakaunitavuki charged down a kick to touch down, converted by Will Grant to level the scores.

Marlborough continued to play with high intensity and soon got their reward as Ben Fulton capitalised when MacDonald Lewis’ chip forward was spilled, with Grant again adding the extras.

The visitors continued to ramp up the pressure and another charge down, this time from Ben Fulton, led to their third touchdown before a superb line break from Avenai Cakaunitavuki set up Ben Caravou to score the bonus-point try, both converted by Grant.

Marlborough continued their momentum right up until half-time and with the last kick of the opening 40 minutes, Grant struck a penalty to put his side 31-7 up.

The visitors came out of the blocks fast in the second half and after twice being held up on the line, Todd Johnson was soon over the whitewash following a 5m scrum.

Salisbury then enjoyed a good spell themselves and two converted tries saw them cut the deficit to 36-21 with 15 minutes to play.

However, their comeback was stopped in its tracks when Mitieli Vulikijapani raced from inside his own half to score the try of the match.

Salisbury were awarded a penalty try in the closing stages and Marlborough’s Tom West was sent to the sin-bin, but it did little to take the gloss of a good day for the visitors.

Elsewhere, Chippenham made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season with a 13-6 success away at struggling Stratford-upon-Avon.

With the wind at their backs early on, Chippenham applied pressure and pinned Stratford in their own 22, but the hosts made it clear that the contest would be a dog fight.

The first half was back and forth but half-time arrived with the score at 3-3, with Al Mackenzie’s penalty providing Chippenham’s points.

With the wind in their face Chippenham struggled to break out of their own half and went through a long spell in their own 22 but despite the conditions continued to play with ambition.

A reshuffle in the back-line gave Chippenham more direction in the second half and they eventually broke through the Stratford defence as Louis Ayliffe finished off a good move to score a try converted by Mackenzie.

A Stratford penalty brought them back to within four points before a feisty few minutes saw both Oli Alcorn and a home player sent to the sin-bin.

Chippenham began to look dangerous again as the contest drew to a close and a high tackle ended a good spell of pressure, with Mackenzie’s subsequent penalty enough to seal the win.

Finally, Royal Wootton Bassett went down 21-10 at home to unbeaten leaders Newbury Blues.