Hornets and Chard timed their sprints to the finish line to perfection to leave the chasing pack in their wake. Chard now face a long trek to Northamptonshire next Saturday to take on Towcestrians RFC in the play-off to decide who will take the remaining National 3 place.

St Austell and Cleve were the pace setters for nearly two thirds of the season but ending up finishing 4th and 5th respectively as their rivals overtook them on the home straight. Camborne jumped over the Saints to finish third courtesy of a bonus point win in their final game. A win at Tregorrick and a draw down West means the Saints were not beaten by Town in the league so Cornish bragging rights will be decided when the pair meet for a third time on 5 May in the County Cup Final.

At the other end Sidmouth and Coney Hill were both long gone but sadly it is Wadebridge Camels who will join them. The Camels have been solid performers in SW1 for several seasons and as the Saints rose through the leagues their near neighbours were often the benchmark to gauge progress. It just goes to underline what an unforgiving league SW1 is because as soon as you stop progressing you are in danger.

Next season will see some familiar faces as well as new points on the map for the Saints to visit.

Relegated from National 3 are Old Centralians, Avonmouth Old Boys and Chippenham.

Promoted from the Western Counties are Drybrook from the Forest of Dean and old friends Ivybridge. The Western Counties play-off is between Teignmouth and Gloucester based Matson.

There will of course be some fine tuning once all the promotion and relegation matters are settled with clubs moved between SW1 East and SW1 West to balance the geographic spread. Whatever they do it is still a long way to Gloucester from ‘Snozzell!

There is talk of a major restructure of the leagues but should the proposals be approved by the RFU the recommendations will not come into play until the 2015-16 season.

Details can be found in the Daily Telegraph and the Rugby Paper.