Sherborne 23-9 Bridgwater and Albion RFC

Bridgwater and Albion slip to the bottom of the table after losing to previous incumbents Sherborne on Friday evening at the end of another match in which they were well in contention for much of the time but left empty handed, writes Richard Walsh.

Kicking into a strong wind the visitors found themselves under pressure after four minutes when Sherborne hacked the ball forward and winger Wigham was on hand to touch down for an unconverted try.

Bridgwater and Albion responded strongly and a series of long passes released Tom Croal who made good ground and got close to the try line but a penalty was conceded and the attack came to nothing.

The Sherborne half backs combined well and ran the ball 80 metres deep into Bridgwater territory, but the defence held firm and the danger was cleared.

On 25 minutes however another Sherborne build up resulted in Elliott Cuff crashing over for an unconverted try, putting the hosts 10-0 ahead.

Matt Ranson came on as a replacement for his first appearance of the season shortly after which Croal made another good run down the wing but the attempt was halted when a penalty was conceded.

After 35 minutes Will Monro, also his season’s debut came on for the visitors and immediately produced one of his trade mark jinking runs shortly after which Tom Steer kicked a penalty which made the score 10-3 at half time.

Bridgwater started strongly after the interval and a 25 metre drive resulted in Steer slotting home a second penalty.

From the re-start however Sherborne were awarded a penalty which Lewis O’Grady kicked, in response to which Steer kicked another penalty making the score 13-9.

The home side kept on creating pressure and after 55 minutes Tom Cuff went over an unconverted try, shortly after which Jordan Buller was yellow carded.

Despite being a player down Bridgwater responded well and a great run by Monro once again went deep into home territory but failed to produce any score. Tom Hopkins and Taylor Buller then both made strong runs, but to no avail.

Sherborne then started to run down the clock and in the last few minutes Tom Rowlands scored a try, following which the visitors  mounted several attacks, but at the final whistle the score was 23-9.