Lots of changes again and several players moved up to the United on Friday night prompted a telephonic rant, not say hissy fit, from manager Andy Ballard who gave Mongo an undeserved tongue lashing whilst he was performing his fatherly duties escorting his offspring at the Weston carnival.

However come the meet time on Saturday and almost all of the players were on time or early. The exception of course was Laszlo who claims that he is operating on a localised version of Eastern European standard time. Nevertheless everyone mustered in time for a pre-Remembrance Sunday minutes silence before the start of the game.

The OBs started briskly and the Athletic were punished to the tune of 3 points following a penalty infringement in loose play.

Weston responded with very vigorous play with forwards and backs attacking well and were building momentum. Monelle was stopped on the line and further scoring opportunities went begging on either wing as the Weston backs hands turned to Teflon covered stone – completely out of character, so what to blame?

Late night studying? Eyestrain from excessive scholastic endeavour? The smart money was on hangover hand syndrome. Weston had to make do with penalties from Dan Lomax as he put Weston in front 6 – 3 after 18 minutes with two well taken penalties.

Further good attacking play saw Paul Cullum crash his way over and after half an hour the Athletic looked poised to run away with the game 16 – 3 up. Solomon pulled up with damage to the ribs and Darran Wheatley more than compensated at loose head.

Oldfield responded well and scored two tries to turn around at half time with the score at 16-15 in Weston’s favour.

After the break Weston looked to be about to completely dominate with a well taken second try for Cullum under the posts and then a pushover neatly finished off by Monelle, and converted by Lomax.

Weston went further ahead on 53 minutes when Dan Lomax, the pick of the backs on the day, touched down his own neat chip and chase under the posts and then converted his own try. His personal tally of 20 points was invaluable.

By now Weston should have been in complete control at 35 – 15 but things went badly for them after losing Burns (replaced by Touhy)to a bruised knee. The rearranged defence was shaky and Oldfield took advantage scoring two late tries.

Weston upped their energy levels in the last ten minutes and held out a resurgent Oldfield to take the win and a bonus point.

This made 5 wins in a row for the Athletic and moves them to fifth in Somerset 2 North equal on points with fourth placed Walcott but behind on points difference.

There is no Athletic game next week but the week after on 23rd November they travel to Walcott Old Boys seeking a sixth successive victory.