South West One

Weston-super-Mare 27 pts Redingensians 16 pts

Weston-super-Mare's right-wing Christopher Crichton brought his season's try tally to six in five matches when he touched down twice during the first half of their match against newly-promoted Redingensians at the Recreation Ground.

The New Zealander's undoubted pace is causing problems for the opposition, but he would be grateful for the assistance he received for both his scores.In the 25th minute, fellow wing Matthew Burns and scrum-half Ross Bennett handled well before flanker David Cook's skilfully-timed inside pass sent Crichton to the line.His second arrived 10 minutes later when full-back Harry Warman intercepted a Redingensians' attack to give him a run to the posts and Chris Young converted.

Earlier the visitors had started well and had taken a 6-0 lead by way of two penalties by Spike Chandler.It took the Seasiders a while to get into their stride, but at the end of the first quarter, lock Andrew Ball's catch and drive produced a try for Cook.

Crichton's score then followed and, just before the interval, Warman's huge 70 metre clearance to the left corner put the visitors under pressure and when they failed to find touch, Burns' dummy took him 40 metres through the defence before off-loading to Ball and a quick re-cycle enabled Young to deliver a soaring pass to T J Madamombe.

Young converted and Weston were comfortably in the driving seat at 24-6.However, the second half did not go according to plan. After Young had missed a 35 metre penalty, Andrew Richards was halted just short of the line, but as Weston's scrum started to deteriorate, Redingensians brought the score back to 24-16 with unconverted tries by Craig Clements and Dan Southern.

The hosts now needed all their defensive acumen and none did better than James Reid, Madamombe and Cook who, with competition looming on the horizon, is making sure the No 6 shirt remains with him.In a rare visit to the visitors' 22, No 8 George Sparks broke clear from a scrum, but lacked support and Young finally sealed the Seasiders' first home win of the season with a penalty four minutes from time.

On Saturday, Weston will receive Luton in the first round of the EDF Energy National Trophy. The visitors, who play their league rugby in National 3 South, are sure to have a large pack, but skipper David Burge and his team are running into form and if they can produce a performance similar to last week's first half, they will acquit themselves well.

Weston-super-Mare: H Warman; C Crichton, T J Madamombe, C Young, M Burns (L Hember 70); J Reid, R Bennett (sinbin 68); H Smith, D Burge, E Hunt (M Matthews 76), A Hall, A Richards (A Russell 57), D Cook, G Simpson, G Sparks.