Bridgwater & Albion 17, Oldfield OB 13

Bridgwater & Albion 17, Oldfield OB 13

THIS narrow win for Bridgwater took the home side two places up the table and out of the relegation zone.

Bridgwater dominated much of the territory and should, perhaps, have scored more than three tries. One of their failings was to play expansive rugby too near their own defensive zone.

The home side gave league debuts to two new wingers, Joel Clark - who looked very lively throughout the game and Arg Saliarelis, a Greek international player.

Bridgwater dominated the opening and veteran hooker Matt Hastie opened the scoring with a try following good work by Clark, Saliarelis and Nick Francis. Ashley Honeywell converted.

On their first visit to the home 22, Oldfield scored a good try through Josh Felix. Rob Payne narrowly missed the conversion but was successful with a penalty minutes later.

Oldfield worked their way back on attack and were rewarded with an unconverted try for prop, Richard Stainer and a somewhat fortunate 7-13 half time lead.

Bridgwater dominated the second half territorially and narrowed the gap mid way through the session with an unconverted try for player-coach, Simon Martin after good work by Saliarelis and Francis again.

The winning try came after 27 minutes. Clark caught a weak clearing kick 25m out on the right-hand touch line. He slipped the ball to loose-head prop, James Bryant who joyously sprinted 20m to the corner as the Oldfield defence opened up like the Red Sea.

Next week, Bridgwater travel to Thornbury hoping to avenge a home defeat earlier in the season.

Team: Nick Francis, Joel Clark, Rob Allen, Ashley Honeywell. Arg Saliarelis, Simon Martin, Dominik Griffin, James Bryant, Matt Hastie, Christian Preece, Dan Kemmish (Capt), Rob Thompson, Tom King, Mitch Windsor, Nick Spellissy.

Replacements all used: Gavin Knight, Sam Russell, Will Kerry