Seasiders gain maximum points with victory over Chard

Weston 33 pts

Chard 19 pts

Weston achieved their fifth successive league victory and their 16th in all when their five tries gave them maximum points at the Recreation Ground last Saturday.

Leading by 33 points after six minutes of the second half, the Seasiders were later hampered by yellow cards awarded against Kirk Middlemiss and Paul Morrissey to give Chard the opportunity to pick up their 19 points during the final quarter.

Skipper George Sparks and his pack showed their hand from the start and from this base there were 16 phases of possession which gave the hosts the advantage in the 14th minute with Glenn Dickson’s try to which he added the extras.

Six minutes later flanker Richard Bignell was on the end of a pushover drive, converted by Dickson for 14-0.

Then, on 27 minutes, a superbly quick 50-metre sprint by wing Matt Watkins provided a try for Ross Bennett.

It was now Weston’s turn to defend and after Watkins and Ashley Russell had prevented a try for visiting full-back Jon Humphreys, the hosts scored their fourth try in first-half stoppage time when a splendid run by scrum-half Hayden Tuttiett gave his partner Dan Lomax the score, Dickson’s fourth conversion taking the interval score to 28-0.

This became 33-0 in the 46th minute after Lomax’s delightfully weighted grubber kick produced full-back Bennett’s second touchdown. But now, assisted by the strong wind, Chard start to make an impact.

Wing Matt Tinley scored from a drive-over, and with seven minutes of normal time remaining, the visitors added tries by wing George Dowse and fly-half Chad Northcott, the latter converting both.

This was another good performance by Weston. In addition to the set scrums, once again the accuracy of the throwing-in of hooker Mike Hocking led to 100 per cent possession at the line-out for Sparks and Russell.

Chard enjoyed more possession than the score indicates and as in the previous four victories, Weston’s defensive qualities came to the fore.

However, the statistics show that they conceded another 16 penalties against eight by the opposition and this needs to be addressed in the remaining matches.

Weston: R Bennett, C Young, K Middlemiss, G Dickson, M Watkins, D Lomax, H Tuttiett, S Coles, M Hocking, O Streeter, A Glen, A Russell, G Sparks (c), R Bignell, P Morrissey. Replacement used: R Ford, B Webb, T Hannam.

At the time of going to press, the date and venue of the Somerset Cup final between Weston and Hornets has yet to be decided.