South West 1 West

North Petherton 10, Old Redcliffians 16

PETHERTON’S impressive winning streak came to an abrupt end on Saturday after they lost narrowly to Bristol side Old Reds at Beggars Brook, writes Simon Freeman.

The early stages mirrored the entire match as Pethy made uncharacteristic errors and never quite recovered.

Old Reds took an early 3-0 lead in the 10th minute after a Petherton infringement but Petherton produced a genuine moment of quality a minute later when a break down the short side by Arron Gibbs, who bounced of two tacklers, pulled in the last defender to give a scoring pass to second row James Cox; Harry Roberts converted.

The visitors closed the gap with their second penalty and then scored their first try of the match to take a 13-7 half-time lead.

The second half began with the Reds camping themselves in the Pethy 22 but strong defence from Matt and Carl Brown kept them out.

In the 50th minute, Pethy worked their way up field from a break by Tito Elisara and, after a couple of passes and a try looking certain, play was called back for a forward pass.

The game remained stalemate until in the 65th minute, a break by Damian Griffin and James Carter pushed the visitors back to their line and with no advantage coming, the official awarded a penalty in the 22 which Roberts converted.

As the game entered the final stages, Petherton pressurised the visitors’ line and only excellent cover defence stopped Pethy from securing the winning score.

But they conceded a penalty in front of the posts which the Reds sensibly used to extend the lead 10-16, the last score of the match.

Man of the match: James Cox.

Match sponsor: Adam Bere l IT’S a Somerset derby on Saturday when Pethy travel to Chard for a 3pm kick-off.