DEVIZES climbed to the top of the Southern Counties South table on Saturday with gutsy 19-5 success at Walcot.

The win in Bath was a sixth from seven games for the Saddlebacks this season, and they have climbed above Grove at the head of the standings on points difference.

Devizes received the kick-off and immediately pinned Walcot in their own territory through excellent carries in the forwards.

The early pressure told when excellent dummy runners allowed Gus O’Connor to glide through a tackle and race over from 35m for the first score. O’Connor converted his own try to get Devizes off to an excellent start.

The home side started to show flashes of excellent play themselves, however, Devizes won a penalty in Walcot territory and kicked for the corner.

From the resulting maul, Devizes powered over the whitewash and Kieran Hiscock was the man to come up with the ball to make it 12-0.

Walcot then had their best period of the match as indiscipline from the visitors crept in, allowing the home side to build territory.

However, this was met with a ferocious rear-guard effort and the Devizes defence remained unbreached.

Then, from a speculative play by Walcot in the Devizes 22, the Saddlebacks pounced to score their third try of the day as Oli Bird picked off a looping pass to intercept and sprint clear. O’Connor converted to make it 19-0.

Devizes did have a couple of other opportunities before the break but the home side remained tight in defence.

The home side played with renewed vigour after the change of ends and started to attack and pin Devizes back.

A score in the 50th minute came after an overlap was converted despite a sterling defensive effort close to the Devizes line.

Walcot were soon throwing everything at the tryline once again, only to be met with some ferocious tackling from the visitors.

The Saddlebacks continued to push the home side back and when they won a turnover, it proved to be a big swing in momentum.

Despite Devizes’ best efforts to increase their lead before the final whistle, including Alex Pattle being held up over the line, the home side managed to hold them at bay.

Elsewhere, Corsham made it back-to-back wins with a 15-8 success at North Dorset.

The Lacock Road side failed to win any of their opening five matches of the season, but have hit form in recent weeks to climb out of the bottom two in the table.