WILTSHIRE Police edged to a deserved 17-12 win over neighbours Devizes in the annual Andy Quinn Memorial game.

Pressurised in the set pieces and prone to conceding penalties and untried Devizes line-up were exposed to attacks from deep positions by a creative set of Police three-quarters.

Police looked sharper from the outset, winning the ball against the head and using two penalties to move close to the Devizes tryline.

A ball won from a maul allowed them to cut through a confused defence to open the scoring and establish a seven-point lead.

Devizes responded by mounting an attack which took them into the Police 22 and, from the resultant maul, Chris Lewis forced his way over for a well taken try. Mike Bates converted to bring the scores level but, although Devizes began to settle in the Police half, their opponents scored against the run of play when they won scrum ball in their own 22 and sliced through under the posts for an easy converted try.

Undaunted, Devizes retaliated and won a scrum five metres from the Police line.

Experienced number eight Chris Maundrell picked up and charged over to pull back five points.

In a scrappy second half though, they were unable to make further inroads and the Police settled it with a late penalty.