Trowbridge gained revenge for Bletchley’s win at home in the opening match of the season at Green Lane on Saturday.

They were without five regulars with full back Chris McLeod, No 8 Shane Johnstone and prop Karl Parry not available and scrum half Jack Hanham and Alex Hill out with injuries.

They played with the elements in the first half but progress by both sides was limited because of handling errors and this also made the match quite unpredictable.

Trowbridge began the game looking as if they would build a big score against their Buckinghamshire visitors who turned up with just 15 players and were quite fortunate that injuries did not deplete them further during the game.

Lloyd Davis kicked a penalty before Bruce Tasker who had already had one opportunity outpaced the Bletchley defence and forced his way through the last tackler to score wide out.

Bletchley then broke up a Trowbridge attack and a chip over the Trowbridge backs bounced horribly for their defence and centre Adam Griffiths gathered and went over in their first real attack.

Tim Stobbs converted to reduce the lead to one point before Trowbridge had their best spell when they reproduced some of their good recent form.

They increased the lead when the ball come to wing Francis Chandler who handed off his opposite number’s tackle and outpaced the defence to score.

At this stage the Bletchley indiscipline was evident as they were constantly questioning the decisions of Australian referee Sandy Flakeler from Oxfordshire who sin binned No 8 Paul Evans for the use of his shoulder in a late tackle. Then from a quickly taken penalty near the half way Barry Coombs scored and soon after Dave Martin went over for a try after some powerful forward play.

Davis converted all three tries to make the score 29-7 but as half time approached the visitors responded and prop Tom Hannell forced his way over for an unconverted try after he had turned up in the backs.

Trowbridge seemed to play a containing game after the break and were not helped by some decisions that went against them.

Scrums were quite often not stationery and offsides in the backs were missed but to their credit, Bletchley took advantage and disrupted the home side.

After Trowbridge scrum half Dean Ellis was sin binned, Evans forced his way over for Bletchley and Stobbs converted before Davis replied with a penalty to extend Trowbridge’s lead again.

Ashley Chalk then found his way through a gap to run in from the half way line to score but the visitors were not finished and captain Kevin Turnbull who had orchestrated some dangerous attacks during the second half scored a good individual try.

Whilst the visitors had played some spirited rugby in the second half they never really threatened to win the match as they never came within a score of the Green Lane side.

This was not Trowbridge best performance against a team who had not won a league match since October but had contributed to an entertaining match despite arriving with a depleted squad.

Trowbridge travel to Cheltenham on Saturday and will need an improved performance to upset the Gloucestershire club.

However if they perform as they did recently against Maidenhead they could pull of a surprise. The coach leaves at 11.45am.