AFTER a winless February, Chippenham triumphed at the first time of asking in March as they claimed a 47-33 win away at Oxford Harlequins.

Chippenham opted to play into a strong wind in the first half, but they soon found themselves in arrears when Quins scored an early penalty.

The visitors managed to find their feet quickly, though, and soon took a 12-3 lead after tries from Matt Dickens and Charlie Palmer off the back of strong forward play, with Oli Alcorn converting one.

Quins started to use the wind advantage to good effect, but Chippenham showed resilience in defence until Aaron Clark was sent to the sin-bin for slowing down the ball, allowing the hosts to kick another penalty.

Chippenham soon took charge of proceedings again and a good line from Alcorn off Jacob Unwin’s pass allowed him to score under the posts before adding the extras himself.

Quins began to build up sustained pressure themselves and a converted try of their own cut the visitors’ lead to 19-13, before two more penalties from the home side saw the teams head in at half-time with the score all-square.

The interval seemed to benefit Quins and they scored a quick converted try to take the lead, but Chippenham hit straight back as Palmer got his second try, with Alcorn’s kick levelling it up once more.

A barnstorming run from Brad Doggett, converted by Alcorn, saw Chippenham sneak back in front, but Quins replied to draw level again with another converted try.

However, Chippenham had the better of the feisty closing stages and tries from Matt Daw and Connor Beer, both converted by Alcorn, saw them snatch the win.

Elsewhere, Marlborough were unable to follow up the superb effort that saw them end leaders Newbury Blues’ unbeaten start to the season last time out as they went down 24-19 at Old Centralians at the weekend.

The home side were first to strike with a converted try, but Marlborough came back fighting and Pio Tuwai’s touchdown got them on the scoreboard, although Jake Williams was unable to convert.

Not long afterwards, Mitieli Vulkijapani stretched his legs, setting off from inside the Marlborough 22 to race clear of the Cents defence and over the whitewash. Williams converted this time.

A penalty saw Cents trim the gap, but a string of Marlborough scrum drives in the dying minutes of the first half were rewarded with a penalty try to give the visitors a 19-10 lead at half-time.

Having already lost the captain Jamie Pittams to injury in the first half, the second period did not go to plan for Marlborough.

There were numerous missed tackles and questionable decisions made by the team, and Cents did not allow those mistakes to go by unpunished.

They trimmed the gap to 19-17 through a penalty try after Semisi Rasivo was sent to the sin-bin for a no-arm tackle.

Two points up but a man down, the contest became much harder for Marlborough, and in the final two minutes, Cents were able to break through the defence for a match-winning converted try.

Royal Wootton Bassett suffered a second defeat in succession, going down 22-17 on their trip to Beaconsfield.

Finally, Trowbridge played out a rare draw at Swindon as their Wiltshire derby ended 19-19.