TROWBRIDGE turned up the pressure at the top of the Southern Counties South table with a 10-try demolition of Walcot last Saturday.

The title chasers hammered the struggling Bath outfit 71-15 on their own Albert Field pitch to make it 12 wins in their last 13 matches.

Second-row Karl Crosby helped himself to a hat-trick of tries for the visitors, while fly-half Tom Weaver converted all but one of the scores and kicked a penalty for a 21-point personal haul.

Walcot actually scored the game’s first points through the first of their three unconverted tries but finished up well beaten. Wing Wade Loftus touched down twice for Trowbridge, whose try tally was completed by Ashley Chalk, Max Day, Andy Twinney, Connor James and Sam Edwards.

Trowbridge were also boosted by the return of influential centre Shai Bonnick following a head injury.

Head coach Dan Jeffries said: “It was really good. We went there last year in a similar position to the one we find ourselves in now and although Walcot were struggling back then too, they put a spanner in our season.

“We had a point to prove but when they scored first I feared the jinx was upon us once again, but we controlled the game, maintained the pressure and the points continued to come.”

Trowbridge, who have a break from action tomorrow, came within a whisker of upsetting South West One West outfit Keynsham in the Bath Combination Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday night.

A penalty which proved to be the last kick of the game earned the home side a 32-31 success over a Trowbridge side who trailed 19-0 after 20 minutes before fighting back.

Chalk, Dan Greenslade and Lewis Jordan all touched down, with Weaver converting all three tries to give the visitors the lead. A Weaver penalty later made it 24-24 heading into a frantic five minutes that saw a converted Sam Weaver score put Trowbridge on the brink of a notable victory.

They thought they had clinched it when Keynsham missed a drop-goal attempt, but play was called back for the decisive penalty.

Now they will at least match last season’s second-place finish if they win their final seven matches of the league season – one of which is away to table-topping Marlborough. The league leaders and second-placed Sherborne are currently three and two points ahead of Trowbridge respectively and, crucially, face one another on March 24.

Jeffries said: “We’ve got to keep up the momentum. Sherborne’s form has dipped recently – they’ve lost a couple of games and dropped a bonus point on Saturday – so we’ve just got to try and keep the pressure on.”