Bassett bailed out at the first hurdle of the Powergen Intermediate Cup losing 26-3 at home to early South West Two East leaders Oxford Harlequins.

Oxford started well scoring two early tries after mesmerising the Bassett defence with their pace, strength and running from depth.

However, a noticeable weakness was their scrumaging, with Bassett's pack pushing them back and taking a number of scrums against the head.

But they had problems keeping possession, kicking away good ball on a number of occasions.

Bassett scored a penalty through fly-half Sean Millwaters, but Oxford replied with two further tries to leave the half time score at 26-3.

The home side made a number of changes for the second half and played it with more structure and spirit, without yielding further tries.

Noticeable performances came from scrum-half Mike Weeks and the versatile Sean Wiltshire.

Assistant coach Glyn Parker said: "Oxford Harlequins played the rugby that we aspire too, keeping the ball alive with players running on to the ball with pace and from depth.

"However, I was very impressed by our second half performance.

"Our defence was excellent and when we had the ball we started to play with some structure and we blew them apart with our scrumaging.''

SWINDON College's interest in the Intermediate Cup ended at the opening stage as they were comprehensively thrashed 58-5 at Bath-based Oldfield Old Boys.

Oldfield stand-off Joel Hawkins weighed in with three penalties, seven conversions and a couple of tries as the College were well beaten despite a good spell at the start of the second half.

Swindon and Devizes were handed a bye into the next round of the competition, but Calne's hopes were abruptly ended as visitors Frome ran in 70 points without reply.

Corsham too are out after a 10-3 defeat at Chipping Sodbury.

NEWCOMER Calvin Bailey scored a hat-trick of tries as Malmesbury defeated Tetbury 2nds 38-7 at Tetbury Sports Centre.

Leading 24-0 at the break, Malmesbury were pegged back by a determined second half display from their hosts, but still scored two more comverted tries after the break.

Paul McLarnon, Adam Twidell and Chris Hunt also touched down while Steve Brady added four conversions.

Tetbury replied with a try from Terry Howell which he converted himself.