South West One

Weston-super-Mare 27 Chippenham 23

Weston-super-Mare were on song in the first and third quarters at the Recreation Ground, but for the remainder they were far from good against a Chippenham team which belied their league position.

The bottom line was the goal kicking of James Mackay which saved the day. The 18-year-old's 100 per cent return from five shots came at a time when one failure could have cost the Seasiders dear.

For half of the match Weston endured severe pressure, not to mention the horrific penalty count against them, an incredible 21-7, plus a yellow card for Daniel Fry, and it was as well their well organised defence managed to restrict the visitors to three tries.

Weston started well with Paul Sprague's try in the fourth minute, converted by Mackay from out wide. Chippenham replied with Karl Brant's penalty, but the hosts stretched their advantage when George Britton scored his first try for the club after good work by George Sparks and Chris Crichton, Mackay converting.

But in the 10 minutes before the interval, Chippenham struck again with Darren McMillan's corner try and Brant's second penalty. At this stage, Weston had conceded 10 penalties, but now it was Chippenham's turn.

Two goals by Mackay and the sin-binning of visiting lock Matthew Bye took Weston to 20-11 and this became 27-11 when Craig Trump's strong burst to the posts provided a try for Mark Armstrong with 15 minutes remaining.

Mackay's third conversion followed, but again Chippenham fought back.As frequent raids and a further torrent of penalties rained down on the home defence, replacement prop Peter Kirby was driven over for Brant to convert and McMillan scored his second try on 80 minutes to make the final score 27-23 to Weston.

Weston were still able to finish strongly in stoppage time, Trump just failing to accept Sprague's scoring pass, but it was close run thing.

Weston-super-Mare: Harry Warman; Chris Crichton, George Britton, Mark Armstrong, Paul Sprague; James Mackay, Ross Bennett;  David Price, David Burge, Simon Williams, Mike Kempton, Eddie Smith, George Sparks, Craig Trump, Dan Fry. Reps: James Gallagher, J Littlewood, James Reid

Weston-super-Mare scorers - tries: Paul Sprague, George Britton, Mark Armstrong; cons: James Mackay (3); pens: James Mackay (2); yellow card: Dan Fry: 

Chippenham scorers - tries: Darren McMillan (2), Pete Kirby; con: Karl Brant; pens: Karl Brant (2); yellow card: Matt Bye (47 min)