DEVIZES saw their hopes of a place in the Dorset & Wilts 1st XV Cup final ended as Sherborne claimed the spoils from a 30-12 result at London Road on Saturday.

The Saddlebacks gave a good account of themselves in the opening quarter of the match, which was scoreless, several huge hits knocking back the visitors' attacks.

Another big smash by Matt Bishop then halted another Sherborne foray but Devizes’ discipline started to wane a little as two penalties within as many minutes were converted by Sherborne centre Rhodri Hopkins to edge the visitors in front.

From the restart, poor play from the home side saw the visitors add a drop goal and Sherborne upped the pressure again.

Within two minutes of the break, they were were 16-0 in front with a pick and go try close to the Devizes line, again converted by Hopkins.

With barely 30 seconds on the clock, Devizes needed something going into the break and excellent pressure saw Jack Mason charge down a box kick which he regathered to sprint in over the try line.

From out wide, the conversion was missed, but Devizes were back in it.

Going down the slope and with their tails now up, Devizes pushed forward from the restart, excellent carries pushing Sherborne back.

Fine hands through the forwards saw lock Lewis Paget gallop down the left wing through a couple of tackles to score, Rory Brown adding the extras.

Sherborne backchat turned the restart into a penalty for Devizes allowing them to increase the pressure, but the visitors managed to prevent any further Devizes score before both sides lost a man to the sin-bin, Travis Orwin seeing yellow for the hosts.

Sherborne edged closer and despite some solid initial defence, the visitors powered over the try line before swarming over again minutes later, both tries being converted to set the seal on their progress.

Corsham also bowed out at the last-four stage as they were beaten 22-10 at North Dorset.