Weston Athletic secured a narrow victory at Nailsea & Backwell.

Nailsea & Backwell 12 pts

Weston Athletic 20 pts

WESTON Athletic were in charge at Nailsea right from the start.

They applied early pressure and after just six minute Prime was on target with a penalty. Soon after, Josh Wheeler crossed for a well-taken try after the ball was recycled twice and Grimes put the backs away on the blind side.

Weston remained firmly in control, but were unable to score again in the half. Prime missed a penalty shot and Bridgman, Hancock and Monelle all went close to the line, only to be thwarted by Nailsea’s desperate defence.

Making good use of the slope in the third minute of the second half, Prime put in a long and testing kick, Weston’s backs attacked and forced the Nailsea full-back into an error. Hannam pounced and sprinted away from the defence to score.

Weston might have pulled away with the score at 13-0, but Nailsea had other ideas and threw everything into attack. The Athletic soaked up the pressure, but Nailsea scored an unconverted try.

With 10 minutes remaining, Weston put the result beyond doubt with an excellent passage of play involving forwards and backs and Ben Wheeler was on hand to take the final pass and force his way over to score near the posts.

Prime converted and although Nailsea got a consolation try right at the death, Weston ran out deserved 20-12 winners.

There was a sound debut for Rob Tollan, who came into the side at short notice from the Colts to play loose head prop for his first senior appearance. There was also a promising debut for Jules Andrieu, who replaced the injured Josh Wheeler at full-back.