MINETY ran in five tries to halt a run of back-to-back defeats in Dorset & Wilts One North and beat Calne 41-19 on the road.

The early exchanges were dominated by the hosts, with Minety’s scrum put under extreme pressure, but against the run of play, the away side took the lead via a Jack Ward penalty.

Minety were reduced to 14 men soon afterwards when Ward was yellow carded for a high tackle and Calne used their numerical advantage to good effect, but the visiting defence kept out wave after wave of attacks.

After soaking up pressure, Minety extended their lead when Mark Glew’s offload allowed Jack Howse to touch down, with Sam Hughes adding the extras.

When Calne’s hooker was yellow carded for an offence in the ruck, Ward pushed the villagers’ lead to 13-0 with a penalty.

Ward then finished off a good team move just before the break before his conversion moved Minety into a comfortable 20-0 lead.

Calne struck back, though, and a pair of converted tries either side of half-time saw the gap trimmed to only six points.

Minety regrouped and after heavy pressure, Kieran Tillotsen scored his first try for the club, converted by Ward.

Calne struck back again with another try, but Minety set about securing the game and a superb Andrew Hibbard run was taken on by Hughes and Howse. From the ruck, Dave Cooke offloaded to Glew to run in the fourth bonus-point try.

Hughes added the conversion and did so again at the death following richly-deserved try for Hibbard after a tap penalty close to the line.

Elsewhere, Sutton Benger claimed their second victory of the season by beating Supermarine 36-14 at home.

Benger had lost five on the bounce going into the fixture but got off to a superb start and after a sustained period of pressure, Matt Rea scored in the corner.

The hosts were soon back on the attack and Chris Bolter dotted down for a try converted by Ollie Maher, although Supermarine were able to respond with their first converted try of the day.

The first half remained well-balanced, but Benger were able to take a 19-7 lead into the break when James Goodenough grabbed a converted try.

Bolter was first to score in the second half, with Maher again adding the conversion, but a yellow card gave Supermarine incentive and they soon had a second converted try.

The home side upped the tempo in the closing stages and Maher added a penalty before Ben Hooper broke free of the defence to round off the scoring with a converted try.

Finally, Pewsey Vale were thumped 124-7 at home by unbeaten leaders Combe Down.