South West 1 West
Bridgwater & Albion 19, Thornbury 26

BRIDGWATER & Albion suffered their first home defeat of the season, against a Thornbury side who ran the ball well and scored four tries.

Once again, despite missing a number of first team regulars through injury, the hosts fought hard and came back strongly in the second half.

Albion opened the scoring just before the 10-minute mark, when Ali Blundell went over for an unconverted try in his first appearance of the season.

But on 17 minutes Thornbury took the lead, thanks to a Rich Bennett try which full-back Bob Adams converted.

The visitors extended their lead on 31 minutes, as scrum-half Harry Glew crossed for a try that Adams converted, and before the break Thornbury prop Luke Pantling crashed over, with Adams again adding the extras to make it 19-5 to the away side at half time.

The Gloucestershire side opened the scoring after the interval, as Alfie Richardson went over for a try that Adams converted, and they held an imposing 26-5 lead.

Despite being 19 points in arrears, the home side remained in the game and replacement Joe Stradling made an almost immediate impact by scoring a try which Kyran Devitt converted.

Albion kept pressing forward and in the dying minutes of the match Gavin Knight returned to the field of play to score a try, which Devitt again converted.

Shortly afterwards, the referee blew his whistle for time, as the game ended 26-19 to Thornbury.

Bridgwater & Albion: Matt Ranson (captain), Gav Knight, Lewis Phillips, Ali Blundell, Dan Kemmish, Ethan Treble-Westlake, George Sluman, Brad Talbot, Adam Conybeare, Tom Fournier D'Able, Joe Clark, Luke Plummer, Ryan Barnett, Will Monro, Kyran Devitt.
Replacements (all used): Alan Roberts, Shaun Mahoney, Joe Stradling.