TROWBRIDGE’S defensive effort was again short of where it needed to be as they shipped a half-century of points for the second weekend in a row in South West One East, going down 55-3 at home to Old Centralians.

The result follows a 50-7 drubbing away at county rivals Marlborough a week earlier and leaves the Doric Park side on six points from four games so far this season.

Trowbridge will be hoping for better fortunes when they travel to Old Patesians on Saturday.

It was also a tough day for Chippenham as they were beaten 55-15 at Banbury.

Marlborough enjoyed better fortunes, though, as they continued their fine start to the season with a gutsy 37-32 win away to Wimborne.

Victory lifted Marlborough to fifth in the region’s second tier, with 15 points secured from their three wins and one defeat to date.

Off the back of an emphatic win against county rivals Trowbridge a week earlier, Marlborough wasted no time in their quest to bag successive victories when opening the scoring in the opening five minutes.

Will Grant bagged the points with an impressive long-range penalty in testing conditions to open a three-point advantage.

Such is the tough nature of the division, though, Wimborne hit back with a converted try following some poor defending by the visitors.

Marlborough didn’t seem to weather the hosts’ storm well, and were uneasy in defence. But concern was soon erased when Grant scored in the corner and registered a conversion, re-establishing the visitors’ three-point lead.

Again, Wimborne hit back with a penalty before Ben Fulton recorded Marlborough’s second try – which was against converted.

Wimborne then exposed Marlborough’s weak defence, scoring an unconverted try to lead 19-17.

Grant’s penalty handed the visitors a one-point lead, but that turned to a four-point deficit by half-time as an unconverted try was registered by the home side.

The game’s topsy-turvy nature continued in the second half. Henry Webster touched down for Marlborough to hand the visitors a three-point advantage at 27-24.

That disappeared when Wimborne recorded an unconverted try before Lemeki’s Moala’s try put Marlborough back in front at 32-29.

A Wimborne penalty levelled the scores, but that proved to be the last time the hosts registered any points as Ash Horner scored the match-winning try.

Finally, an early red card for Chris Rowland coupled with Phil Bardwell’s controversial sin-bin forced Royal Wootton Bassett to dig deep in their match away against bottom club Windsor.

Taking the above into consideration, the Ballards Ash side can take pride from their 38-13 win at Home Park.

The victory stretched Bassett’s unbeaten start to the season to four games – from which they have picked up all 20 points on offer – and leaves them tied at the top of the early table.