Weston United welcomed newly promoted Crewkerne to The Rec on a standard Great British Summer’s day… blowing a gale with the rain teeming down. However, it wasn’t to dampen the spirits of the team despite a slightly delayed start due to traffic problems for the opposition.

The United haven’t had a full team run out for pre-season due to opposition sides cancelling, but started well putting together some good phases of play despite the conditions. Throughout the game there was the odd handling error, but all in all the United played the conditions well.

Playing into the wind, any initial new season nerves were settled by Dan Lomax slotting a penalty. From the kick off the United put together a number of phases to get back into the opposition 22 and Jack Salisbury, who had a Man of the Match performance, sniped over with Lomax adding the extras.

The second came from Salisbury again who despite having an overlap sold the dummy and scampered through untouched. Conversion missed.

The forwards were dominant in the scrum and the loose all day, with Billy Kirk and Richard Johnston leading from the front. This front-foot ball gave the backs a great platform to attack. Kirk Middlemiss, who had a fine game, made a searing break up the pitch supported ably by his veteran centre partner Sam Waterman.

However, Waterman realised he definitely didn’t have the legs to gas the last man to the corner so threw a pass inside to the supporting Ross Chesher who crashed over for the last score of the half. 20-0 up at the break.

Attitude and mentality have been a key attribute sought by coaches and management this season, and the United didn’t lose theirs at all. The target was to keep the opposition score-less, and the team stuck to the task well. The opening try of the half came from great vision by Ben Searle. Playing out of position on the wing, he went back to his more accustomed scrum half to feed Waterman down the blindside. Again, lack of gas prevailed and a carbon copy pass inside (off the usually dodgy left hand!) found Adam Godfrey to cruise in. Lomax added the extras.

There were 3 more scores throughout the half. Simon Hudson who threw plenty of dummies all day went over from short range. Middlemiss scored the individual try of the day, recovered a clearing kick and then proceeded to beat a number of defenders in a 50m run back to the line. Lomax converted. The final try went to Lomax after great phase play and he ghosted through, as well as adding the extras.

Great result to start the season, and could have (and should of) been more… captain Dave Bird butchering a 4 on 1 that looked a foregone conclusion! Crewkerne stuck to the task, but a fantastic cover tackle and jackal by Searle in the 77th minute kept the clean sheet.

We wish Crewkerne all the best for the season as the step up from Somerset 1 to Somerset Premier was one we took 6 years ago and it’s definitely a tough task.

Next up is Gordano away, and a minor personal battle of the coaches with ex-Weston veteran players Chris Hurd and Dave Burge being at the helm there.

Weston United scorers - tries: Aaron Godfrey, Kirk Middlemiss, Jack Salisbury (2), Dan Lomax, Simon Hudson, Ross Chesher; cons: Dan Lomax (4); pens: Dan Lomax