Winscombe scored after four minutes in their home victory over Minehead.

Winscombe 27 pts

Minehead 17 pts

THE game started well for the home side with a try after four minutes.

From a scrum, Owen Howell and Matt Hoy-Green combined to worry the defence and Tom Ledger carried the move on to produce quick ball for James Flower to touch down.

The Minehead full-back made a couple of good runs and from one, the ball was quickly recycled to create an overlap and they squeezed over in the left corner to level the scores, despite a fine tackle by Tom Nock.

Minehead were penalised at a driving maul after a clean catch in the line-out by Greg Brown and Hoy-Green put his team back in front with a well struck kick. Will Thomas gathered the restart and Winscombe were straight back on the attack as Howell, Dan Fryer and Adam Scrase made hard yards to send Flower on a fine run that was stopped just short of the line.

With nearly 30 minutes played, Minehead had their first put-in and they lost it. Louis Hooper sent Howell down the blind-side and Simon Thompson carried into the 22 where Hooper chipped to the right corner for Nock to win a five metre put-in.

The pack went for the push-over and Thomas was held up as he attempted to drive for the line, but when given a second chance he was not to be denied.

More pressure culminated in another five metre attacking scrum, from which Howell barged over for a try converted by Hoy-Green on the stroke of half-time for a deserved 20-5 lead.

Winscombe were on the defensive at the start of the second half, but after 10 minutes they broke through in midfield from a scrum and Thompson drove play on to give Flower room to dodge over for a converted bonus point try.

They then spurned two gilt-edged chances to put the game out of sight before going off the boil and allowing the visitors to get back on the scoreboard with a try in the corner.

Most of the final 10 minutes were played out in Winscombe territory and Minehead drove over for a converted try at the end of normal time. They then came close to gaining two bonus points in a frantic period of injury time, but the Winscombe defence held out.