At 1.00pm they still only had 13 but Paul Cullum persuaded his brother Ian to play and he brought along Andy Moig, another great player who normally has work commitments that prevent his regular appearance.

Rich Frost had to play out of position at full back and Troy Hannam took on the role of scrum half. Paul Cullum took the 10 shirt for the first time since under 16 level.

So Weston started with 15 which had looked unlikely just an hour earlier. Playing in a changed strip due to colour clash Weston started the game in lively fashion. Harlequins modus operandus seemed to be predicated on moaning, grizzling, complaining, griping and then when they had their hands on the ball picking the wrong option time and again.

Despite their significant forward advantage Harlequins were undone by a great turn of speed from Ian Cullum and quick hands and elusive running saw Hannam score on thirteen minutes. Frost collected the extras and Weston then defended stoutly snuffing out every harlequins attack.

Moig tackled fiercely and regular knocked his man back. Craddock, Sparks and Monelle worked tirelessly and it was not until the half hour stage that Harlequins mounted a successful attack and scored near the post with the conversion bringing the scores level.

Shortly before half time another break out , good forward support and a quick run on the open side saw Hannam cross for his second try, also converted by Frost and leaving the Athletic 14 – 7 up at the half time whistle.

At the interval Weston felt that they had the edge, despite less than 50% of the possession to upset Harlequins and take the points but a determined effort by all would be required.

The second half saw harlequins again squander their share of possession and although the Athletic scrum was under huge pressure Monelle and Hannam managed to scramble the ball away and give the Athletic backs some ball to work with.

Claely Quins were rattled and their moaning intensified with frequent appeals to the ref for a “pennatty”. Both sides were treated equally however and their failure to concentrate allowed Weston top prosper and make good ground even though they were getting scrappy possession.

Some great runs by McCarthy, who seemed not to be able to retain the ball, Paul Cullum, Moig and particularly Jo McGrath on the left wing kept play in the Harlequins half. When they attacked they continued to pick the wrong optios but even when they did spread the ball wide the Athletic’s covering tackles prevented then getting even close to scoring.

Robbie Blackborow put in one particularly good scything tackle on the Quins winger and this seemed to make their heads drop.

A period of good mauling saw Quins infringe and Frost converted the penalty to take the game into the last 10 minutes with Weston 10 points clear. Sustained good defence for the last few minutes of the game brought the desired result for the Athletic.

It wasn’t pretty but it was a tremendous effort by all concerned and better discipline this week gave the points to the Athletic who reach the half way point of the season with 6 wins from 11 games and back up to sixth in the league, just points difference behind Walcott.