CHIPPENHAM rugby club marked ten years at their Allington Field home with a comfortable win over Amersham and Chiltern as the South West Two East season began in earnest on Saturday.
The home side were dominant throughout and opened the scoring within minutes of the referee's whistle.
Fly-half Risdale found flanker Scott Sherratt with an inside pass, which the former skipper carried with him to go under the posts for a try.
The conversion was kicked by James Barnard, who was restored to a more familiar full-back role.
Chippenham went further in front with a carbon-copy effort moments later. New captain Rupert Crocket made an inside pass to blindside flanker, Gary Squires and he outpaced the cover defence to score. Barnard again added the conversion.
A successful Barnard penalty midway through the half triggered another scoring spree and the home forwards showed their dominance in set piece moves.
They drove over from a line-out close to the Amersham line and newcomer Stu King, making his debut at number eight following his summer move from Wootton Bassett, touched down.
The visitors responded with their best spell of the game immediately before half time, but Chippenham soaked up the pressure and went into the interval 22 points in front.
The home side regained control of the game after the restart and young winger Eddie Smith marked his debut for the club with a try in the corner.
Second row Kevin Thornton then finished off a lovely flowing move to add his name to the scoresheet. He took a pass from Squires before scoring under the posts.
Winger Darren McMillan showed his pace to skip past his opposite number and increase Chippenham's advantage with a fine individual try.
Chippenham then took the opportunity to introduce all of their replacements. Number eight Ian McNerlin replaced King and ex-Rosslyn Park back-row Phil Coope was introduced for Gary Squires. Fly-half Risdale, who appeared to be carrying a leg injury, was replaced by centre Gary Champion.
Chippenham underlined their dominance by demolishing the Amersham pack in a scrum on their own five metre line by driving the visitors clean off their own ball.
Flanker Cooper then sealed the hosts' victory with the final try following a fine break from defence.
Chippenham's title ambitions will receive a severe test on Saturday when they travel to Swanage and Wareham, who were relegated from South West Division One last season.
Swanage began their league campaign with a last-gasp victory at Minehead.
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