MARLBOROUGH came from 19 points down to beat Buckingham 39-26 in South West One East last weekend.

The common outfit had suffered a slight wobble in recent weeks but returned to winning ways in dramatic style.

From the first whistle, Buckingham made the strongest of starts by putting 19 unanswered points on the board in quick succession.

But after a shaky start, Marlborough perked up with the help of returning first team captain, Ben Fulton, and the visitors found their flow. Marlborough’s physicality increased and the unfamiliar combinations within defence started to click together.

In the 30th minute, debutant Lotima Havili finished off a very well worked try in the corner which went unconverted.

Nevertheless, the momentum was now with Marlborough, and Mesake Kini went on to score two tries before the break to haul the visitors back into the contest at 19-17.

After the break, and despite two yellow cards for Marlborough, Tommy Elbrow crashed over to see the visitors in front for the first time.

Dave Pittams’ side extended their lead in the 60th minute through Manasa Cakau, only to see Buckingham finally hit back through a converted try of their own.

From there, it was all Marlborough, however. Cakau crossed the whitewash again eight minutes from time before Will Cowan-Dickie showed his individual quality to bag a try of his own in the dying moments.

Elsewhere, in the South West Premier division, Royal Wootton Bassett lost 43-7 away at Weston-super-Mare.

Meanwhile, in Southern Counties South, Swindon closed the gap at the top to a point courtesy of their 26-7 victory over Combe Down and Devizes’ heavy 32-5 loss against Salisbury.

Swindon College Old Boys went down 22-24 at home to Avonvale in a key fixture between two relegation-threatened sides.