South West One

Weston 29 pts Bracknell 22 pts

WESTON won their fourth match of the campaign in South West 1, but they are making a habit of establishing a winning lead then not being able to finish it off.

This was the scenario against Reading and St Ives, and it occurred again on Saturday.

By the 54th minute at the Recreation Ground, they were deservedly 29-5 to the good, but Bracknell were allowed to get back into the match and by the end, the visitors were only one score away from sharing the spoils.

As usual, the Seasiders had made a sprint start.

The match had hardly started before Darren Doughty scored his first senior try and on 15 minutes Joe Ewens was similarly touching down from Mark Armstrong's chip.

A yellow card awarded against Goran Vucicevic led to Oliver Jones' try for Bracknell, but two penalties by Armstrong gave his team a comfortable interval lead.

Weston needed a score early in the second half and it arrived when Roger Drabble, who had replaced injured James Reid, harassed a defender into giving away a penalty which Armstrong converted.

Armstrong added his fourth penalty and before that converted his own try, created by Ewens, and Weston were sitting pretty with that 24-point advantage.

But Bracknell, the division bottom club, suddenly came to life and for the rest of the match they were much on the front foot.

They scored a brace of tries through skipper Sam Nowak and Oliver Jordan, the first converted by Ben Nowak and with 20 minutes remaining, Weston were beginning to look down the barrel.

Some important defending, particularly by Ewens, Vucicevic and George Sparks saved their blushes and although the visitors had the final word with David Burge's try, they eventually ran out of time.

During Bracknell's 20-minute onslaught, Weston were unfortunate to lose replacement Ed Hunt, whose yellow card was a case of mistaken identity, and Armstrong with a badly broken nose.

Weston: M Lowis; G Vucicevic (sin bin 19), J Reid (R Drabble 37), J Ewens, P Sprague; M Armstrong (E Hunt 75, sin bin 79), L Hember; H Smith, D Burge, D Doughty, A Richards, B Noble, A Russell, K Hobbs (D Cook 58), G Sparks.