WITNEY continued their fine start to the season with a 26-8 victory over Chippenham at Hailey Road.

Their third win in as many games leaves them in South West 1 East’s top three.

Jake Thomas and Declan Bayliss crossed, while Matt Clarke scored 13 points and Henry Lamb kicked a penalty.

It took Witney 30 seconds to take the lead as a clearance kick was charged down and centre Thomas went over. Clarke converted.

Chippenham’s Harry Taylor kicked a penalty to get the visitors up and running, before Lamb replied for Witney.

Both sides looked to attack, but the hosts’ defence held strong, while their own errors cost them on the offensive.

However, Chippenham did break through, with Dominic Riccio speeding over for an unconverted try to cut the home side’s lead to 10-8 at half-time.

A Clarke penalty on 44 minutes extended Witney’s advantage to five points and it was his boot that was doing most of the damage.

He slotted another three points on 51 minutes to make it 16-8.

And on 63 minutes, Chippenham went offside in front of their own posts and Clarke made no mistake with the penalty kick.

The result was put beyond doubt when Bayliss went over and Clarke converted.

In the BB&O Championship, Chipping Norton lost 16-14 to Wheatley.