PROLIFIC point scorer Sam Ridley continued his fine form to help table-topping Basildon beat Clacton 40-15 in London Three Essex.

Ridley scored 15 points to help Basildon secure a sixth successive win.

And the fly-half was happy to pick up another victory despite not feeling the team were at their best.

“It was good to get the win at the weekend and getting another bonus point was exactly what we wanted,” said Ridley, who has now scored 90 points this season.

“It certainly wasn’t our best performance, we made hard work of it at times and only performed for about 40 minutes.

“But having said that we got what we wanted and maintain our place at the top of the table.”

The triumph kept Basildon three points clear of second placed Millwall.

And Ridley admitted Basildon had surprised even themselves by making such a stunning start to the season.

“It’s been great and I don’t think we really expected to be sitting at the top at this stage of the year,” said the 23-year-old.

“But that just shows how hard we have worked and I think we certainly deserve to be there.

“Hopefully we can keep on winning and as a team we have certainly set our sights on promotion.

“Having an excellent coaching set-up has really helped and I have no doubts that as a team we will continue to improve and deliver what’s expected of us.”

Basildon started brightly and opened the scoring when scrum half Daniel Rowley teed up winger Levi Causton to score.

Ridley added the conversion before Clacton hit back with a converted try and a penalty to lead 10-7.

But Basildon were soon able to respond with Tom Einchcomb smashing his way through for the first of his three tries and Ridley - the club’s top points scorer this season - adding the extras.

Basildon remained on top with Lewis McGrath soon touching down for a try which Ridley converted before 18-year-old Einchcomb bagged his second try of the afternoon to put Basildon 26-10 in front at the break.

Basildon soon went further ahead with Einchcomb scoring a superbly taken try before Ridley added a quick-thinking try.

Einchcomb then completed his hat-trick with Ridley adding the extras before he also intercepted a pass to score another try of his own, which he converted to make sure of another Basildon win - despite a late try from Clacton.