Weston suffered another heavy defeat, this time going down to league champions Bournemouth.

BOURNEMOUTH 61 pts

WESTON 5 pts

WESTON suffered another heavy defeat at Chapel Gate as Bournemouth confirmed their elevation to National 2 South.

The hosts scored nine tries, eight of them converted by their fly-half Robbie Searle to steer clear of Chinnor and Redingensians at the top of National 3 South West. But the Seasiders had started well.

Even though their second row consisted of two flankers, Shaun Eaton and Gavin Simpson, their scrimmage provided problems.

The front row of David Swann, Craig Withers and Steve Donegan did the business and things were even until the 24th minute.

But when Bournemouth wing Eddie Edwards scored at the left corner from a kick and chase, the door was opened, and by half-time they had added three more tries to bring the score to 26-0.

Just after Edwards’ try it took some important defending by the hosts to prevent a try by wing James Arnold who took advantage of some good work by full-back Ross Bennett.

But by now, Bournemouth were on their way to victory and they started the second half with tries by flanker Jack Hennings and scrum-half Sam Hardcastle, who went on to complete his hat-trick.

Hennings scored again together with replacement Dan Cawley with Searle adding the conversions before Weston replied at last in the fourth minute of time added.

Skipper George Sparks’ clean catch at an attacking line-out saw flanker Jamie Rudkin on the end of the resultant drive to claim his 15th try of the season.

Weston: R Bennett, M Watkins, J Letherby, G Kimmins, J Arnold, S Disney (C Hurd 72), D Waldon, D Swann (M Matthews 72), S Eaton, G Simpson (sinbin 41), J Rudkin, R Bignell (M Deacon 59), G Sparks (c).

Weston now occupy ninth place from 14 with 47 points and look to be safe from relegation from National 3 South West.

Their final match on Saturday at the Recreation Ground against already relegated Newbury Blues should see them clear.

In the other matches, Oxford Harlequins (45 points) have little chance against champions Bournemouth, but the crucial match at the bottom will be Old Redcliffians (43 points) and Amersham and Chiltern (41). The losers will find themselves in the bottom three.