The game began with only 14 Weston players on the pitch as Jo McGrath was mysteriously delayed and ran onto the pitch after the first foray by Keynsham into Weston territory. Had he been on the phone? Suffering a gastric incident? Perhaps we’ll never know.

The whole side seemed to have failed to wake up properly and Keynsham attacked vigorouisly. The Athletic defence held and they got back into the game with some good driving play by the forwards and centres Hancock and Steele both testing the Keynsham tacklers.

On 20 minutes, following good work in the loose, Steele broke strongly on the right and found Collins loitering on the wing. He took his chance well and scored in the corner. Darren Hancock had been handed the kicking duties and duly converted the try.

The Athletic remained in control and had several close attempts including Lewis Hancock’s effort in the left corner foiled by a marginal decision by the ref that he had just strayed into touch.

With 5 minutes to go in the half the forward again drove towards the line and James Disney, who had taken over at prop for the injured Bryant, carried over for a try near the posts, converted again by Darren Hancock. The Athletic were well placed at 14 – 0 at the interval.

Weston started the stronger side in the second half and quickly scored through fly half Matt Burns. Hancock got the extras again and Weston looked as though they had the win in hand.

However Keynsham raised their game and came back strongly with some good work by their forwards and their impressively large full back making ground several times. They scored three tries in 25 minutes to bring the scores level on 19 each.

Fortunately Weston increased their energy levels and some good work by forwards and backs saw Frost run through to gather a cleverly placed long kick. He evaded the defence and scored under the posts. Hancock added the extras and Weston were not in trouble again.

They could have scored twice more but handling errors cost them a certain try. Finally the pressure brought a penalty in front of the posts duly kicked by Hancock to give the Athletic a comfortable margin in a game that was keenly contested and played in a good spirit by both sides.