Bridgwater & Abion 26, Bideford 20

BRIDGWATER made a welcome return to winning ways, but it was a close-run thing against a gallant Bideford side whose second-half fight-back almost saw them claim the spoils, writes Richard Walsh.

In front of a good-sized crowd, the hosts took the lead with a Stuart Heal penalty after five minutes that was cancelled out when Ollie Wickett slotted home for the visitors.

A series of scrums near the try line for Bridgwater resulted in James Collings crashing over for an unconverted score, which made it 8-3 after 15 minutes.

The hosts were very much in the ascendancy and, on 25 minutes, a move that started on the right and involved Ollie Dunn and Collings was finished off by Brad Field on the left who rounded the posts before touching down for a try Heal converted.

Just before the break, Heal kicked another penalty which made the score 18-3 at the half-time whistle.

When Bridgwater extended their lead with an unconverted try by Dunn three minutes after the re-start, it looked as though they were going to cruise to victory.

Bideford, however, had other ideas and, following a series of moves down the right side on 15 minutes, Richard Norman went over from close range for a try which Wickett converted which made the score 23-10.

Bridgwater came back well and created their own pressure that saw Heal kick another penalty to create a 16-point gap.

The Devon side kept on working the ball down the right-hand side and, after 25 minutes, skipper George Snell went over for a try that Wickett converted to reduce the arrears to nine points.

With less than 10 minutes to go, Wickett kicked another penalty for Bideford to nar -row the gaps further, which resulted in a tense and hard- fought finish but Bridgwater hung on to claim victory.

Bridgwater & Albion - 1 Lewis Phillips, 2 Shaun Mahoney, 3 Joe Bussell, 4 Ali Blundell, 5 Dan Kemmish, 6 Ethan Trebble-Westlake, 7 Ollie Dunn (capt), 8 Taylor Buller, 9 James Collings, 10 Stuart Heal, 11 Sam Britton, 12 Luke Plum - mer, 13 Rob Allen, 14 Oscar Tregenna, 15 Brad Field.

Reps (all used) - 16 Garryn Basson, 17 Adrian Tew, 18 James McLachlan