WESTON registered their highest points score since they beat Cleve by 55-13 in October 2007.

CHELTENHAM 24 pts

WESTON 54 pts

WESTON registered their highest points score since they beat Cleve by 55-13 in October 2007.

A minute into the second half they held a 22 point advantage, but with Richard Bignell in the sinbin, Cheltenham scored two tries to bring them back into contention.

However, despite conceding a further try, the Seasiders finished strongly to run out clear winners at the Prince of Wales Stadium.

Weston had started well. Early inroads by Andrew Glen and Gavin Simpson resulted in a 20 metre penalty for James Mackay and the fly-half was soon converting tries by Steve Donegan and Paul Sprague.

In the 22nd minute Steve Thompson was unable to ground the ball from Mackay’s chip but a minute later the wing was there following his interception on halfway.

Mackay’s third conversion followed but before the interval the hosts replied with Nile Dacres’ try.

Mackay started the second half as he had the first with a penalty, but Bignell’s yellow card gave Cheltenham the chance to retaliate with Joe Garner’s unconverted try.

Poor tackling gave centre Mark Whitney Cheltenham’s second try, converted by Mark Wilcox but several strong drives produced a try by David Swann. Mackay converted again, then added another penalty to take Weston to 37-17.

But, for the second time, the visitors messed up the restart and Whitney’s second try, converted by Wilcox was Cheltenham’s reward.

However, this was to be the hosts’ final score as Weston’s final 10 minutes produced tries for Mackay and Bignell.

Mackay’s four penalty and two more conversions gave him a 100 per cent kicking return, and a personal tally of 29 points.

Weston: J Waterman, S Thompson, J Gallagher, D Swartbooi, P Sprague, J Mackay, J Conway, D Swann, D Burge, S Donegan, A Glen (c), A Russell, J Rudkin, R Bignell, G Simpson. Reps: S Williams, S Board, J Reid.

This was a splendid performance by the Seasiders. Some of the passing out of tackles were of the highest order and Glen’s pack held sway for much of the match.

The back row of Bignell, Simpson and Jamie Rudkin was in fine fettle and it was good to see wings Sprague and Thompson with plenty of ball in hand.

Paul Redman’s men will need to carry this effort into Saturday’s match against Oxford Harlequins at the Recreation Ground (3pm).

THE semi-final of the Somerset Cup between Weston and Taunton will be played at Taunton’s Hyde Park ground on Wednesday, March 23. The venue was agreed by both clubs after a toss of a coin.

The other semi-final between Clevedon and Bath University will be played at Weston’s Recreation Ground on the same evening. The kick-off times will be announced next week.