Melksham travelled to the Chippenham ground on a dreary day.
The visitors were first to strike from a line out with prop Rob Escott powering over for his first of the season. Fly half Callum Hurn added the extras.
A competitive arm wrestle of a game continued for the next quarter, broken by the visitors working a quick ball out through the hands for full-back Cameron Bull to dive into the corner. The half time score 0-12.
The attritional game saw losses to both sides, the home team down to 14 through periods of the game.
Melksham were off to a quick start on resumption of the second half with a strong elusive run from centre Phil Stone to score, with Hurn booting the extra points.
The hosts weren’t giving up and worked an excellent driving maul to power the ball over the line for their first points.
Melksham then hit their stride with sub Matt Glover off the bench, showing his direct power scoring twice in as many minutes, with Hurn slotting the posts on both occasions to add to the tally.
Ramping up the pressure on the home team, Stone made a quick break through the centre supported well by Jonny Mills taking the ball and passing to Dave Dyke to score, Hurn slotting the posts to bring the Melksham tally to 40 points.
Down but not out, Chippenham’s lively fly half spotted a gap and raced through to score at the end of the game. Final score 12-40.
