Royal Wootton Bassett made a winning start to life back in the South West Premier League as they defeated Chew Valley 25-19.

Following promotion from Regional 2 South West, Bassett were given a baptism of fire against Chew Valley, who had finished third in the league last season winning 17 of their 22 matches.

The Bristol side kicked off in near-perfect conditions with a large crowd in attendance as the match coincided with Bassett’s annual beer festival.

In the 11th minute, a Chew Valley attack along the halfway line faltered when the ball was spilt. Bassett winger Henry Toomer employed a football-style trap before picking up the ball and outpacing the stretched defence to open the scoring.

Chew Valley were continuing to have the possession and territorial stats in their favour but the well-organised Bassett defence was preventing any clear-cut chances and the pace of the back division was causing problems for the Bristol side.

Just after the half-hour, another promising Chew Valley attack faltered on the Bassett 22. Woody Walker raced out of defence and passed to Charlie Brook who looked as though he might make it before feeding Byron Lloyd-Gilmour who scored near the corner.

An attack from the visitors under the posts was thwarted but the ball was spun wide and the full-back was able to score. The conversion saw the deficit reduced to 14-7.

Just before the interval Bassett were awarded a penalty under the posts following a scrum and Floyd slotted over for a 17-7 lead.

The first half had saw the Bassett side work very hard against the Bristol outfit who had shown at times why they had done so well last season. The worry was that the efforts might see them run out of steam in the second period.

Just before the midway point of the half, a maul near the Bassett line saw the Chew Valley hooker go over near the corner. The conversion was missed but Bassett now led by just five points.

Five minutes later another series of attacks saw the ball passed wide and the Chew Valley tighthead appeared and went over to give Valley the lead for the first time in the match.

However, Bassett immediately struck back with Floyd slotting a simple penalty for the Wiltshire All Blacks to lead 20-19.

With five minutes remaining an attacking Bassett scrum saw the ball fed to Toomer who went around two defenders to score his second of the game to rubber-stamp the victory.