Somerset Cup 1st Round

Burnham 10, Bridgwater & Albion 38

FOR the second week running, Bridgwater scored six tries and were worthy winners against fellow Sedgemoor side Burnham to move into the quarter finals of the Somerset Cup, writes Tony Pomeroy.

The game was over as a contest after only seven minutes. Two Rob Allen breaks set up a brace of tries for scrum half Roger Drabble. The first from short range and the second ending with a 35m sprint. Will Kerry's two conversions rubbed salt in the wound. Minutes later Drabble avoided 'a jug' by slipping when clear near the home line.

A yellow card for Rob Thompson allowed Burnham back into the game but they had to be content with a penalty by Tim Piper as their only reward.

Bridgwater ended the half as they started it - with a brace of tries. Firstly, following good work by Joe Stradling, an outrageous dummy by Doug Page-Symonds put Chris Webber under the posts and then Allen gathered a loose ball on his own 22 and outpaced the home defence for the fourth try. Kerry's two conversions made it 3-28 at half time.

Burnham started the second half by putting Bridgwater under enormous pressure and scored a deserved try through Mike Hocking, converted by Piper. Both sides had yellow cards, Webber for Bridgwater and Bryan Webb for Burnham.

However, Bridgwater extended their lead when Drabble broke blind from halfway to set up an unconverted try for Stradling.

Bridgwater managed one more try when Drabble again broke clear, handed on to Matt Hastie who put Webber in for his second try, this time unconverted.

The team face the long trip to Camborne next Saturday for a 3pm kick-off.

Team: Stuart Heal, Garryn Basson, Rob Allen, Will Kerry, Matt House, Dominik Griffin, Roger Drabble, James Bryant, Gavin Knight, Christian Preece, Rob Thompson, Doug Page-Symonds, Dan Kemmish (Capt), Joe Stradling, Chris Webber.

Replacements Used Matt Hastie, Matt Northey, Sam Russel, Dan Steward, Rhys Owen, James Kerry Replacement not used: Simon Martin