South West One

Weston-super-Mare 42 Chippenham 17

With half an hour gone, and having conceded two tries, Weston found themselves 14 points in arrears against a confident-looking Chippenham side.

At that stage, the Seasiders had that out-of-sorts look which had pervaded in their previous three outings, but a handy try by Michael Denbee in first-half stoppage time eased the situation, and when David Burge touched down in the 42nd minute, Weston were back on track.

The second half saw Chippenham remain scoreless and it was a period which was illuminated by a try hat-trick for David Cook, who celebrated the award of his club blazer badge.

The visitors were soon ahead when in the fourth minute Mark Warburton crossed easily at the posts for Andy Williamson to convert and he added a penalty following back-chat to referee Stephen Fry.

James Reid replied with a penalty following strong thrusts by Sean Bennett and Alec Hughes, but Williamson was soon converting Chippenham's second try scored by Ian Jones.

Weston then attacked with vigour and after a penalty scrum had yielded nothing, a superb piece of skill by Tim Mathias sent Denbee to the line.

The hosts started the second half with an irresistible 20-metre drive which gave acting skipper Burge a try and Reid's conversion brought the score back to 17-15.

Ashley Russell's departure with a shoulder injury did not help Weston's cause and they were further denied when Paul Sprague was held up over the line, but within a three-minute period, Reid came to the rescue.

His second penalty gave Weston the lead for the first time and when he beat four would-be defenders for a quality individual try, the winning post came into view.

Then came Cook's contribution. His first and third tries were from five-metre push-overs, but his second arrived as Chippenham lost possession inside Weston's 22 for Cook to sprint 85 metres to the line, leaving the chasing defenders in his wake and Mike Lowis converted two.

This was a much better showing by Weston, especially in the second half, but their habit of kicking away good possession might have been punished by a better side than Chippenham who gradually ran out of steam.

On the credit side, Hughes' defensive qualities in the centre were invaluable, and 20-year-old Craig Chase, in his second start, continues to show promise.

Weston-super-Mare: M Lowis; J Woodward (G Vucicevic 53), A Hughes, S Bennett, P Sprague; J Reid, R Jones; T Mathias, D Burge (J Gallagher 73), C Derrick, A Richards, C Chase, D Cook, M Denbee, A Russell (A Chase 50).