South West 1 West
Bridgwater & Albion 39, Bideford 12

BRIDGWATER & Albion returned to winning ways with an emphatic seven-try victory over Bideford at College Way on Saturday, which featured a hat-trick of tries from Luke Plummer, writes Richard Walsh.

Cheered on by a large and enthusiastic crowd, swollen in number by those attending club president Mike Berry’s 70th birthday party, the hosts took the lead on five minutes when Plummer went over for the first of his tries, which he also converted.

Albion kept up their pressure, and a quarter of an hour in, Number 8 Brad Talbot scored a try that Plummer added the extras to.

Bideford got themselves onto the scoresheet on 25 minutes when Adam Crouch scored a try, converted by Colin Snell, but the home side responded immediately with an unconverted try from Tom Fournier, making it 19-7 at the interval.

Bridgwater were quick off the mark after the restart, as it took just two minutes for Plummer to extend the lead with an unconverted try.

The North Devon side kept on fighting though and five minutes later Alex Preece went over for an unconverted score.

Bridgwater maintained their pressure at the other end and just on the hour hooker Sam Adcock scored an unconverted try.

Shortly afterwards Oscar Tregenna marked his comeback appearance with a try, again not converted.

In the last few minutes, Plummer – who gave an impressive performance throughout in the unfamiliar position of fly-half due to Stuart Heal being unavailable – scored his third try, to make the final score 39-12.

Bridgwater & Albion: Matt Ranson, Sam Adcock, Craig Blyde, Dan Kemmish, Arron Kelly, John Roberts, George Sluman, Brad Talbot, Adam Coneybeare, Luke Plummer, Oscar Tregenna, Ollie Dunn, Tim Thompson, Lewis Plece, Tom Fournier. Replacements (all used): Jo Clarke, Ryan Barnett, Lewis Phillips.