Tribute South West 1 – West
Clevedon 50 – North Petherton 17
Saturday 5th December 2015
Report By Simon Freeman
A blistering start to the second ultimately killed off Petherton who produced a battling first half performance. In stodgy conditions fitness played a role in the second half avalanche which helped Clevedon to achieve their fourth win on the bounce.
Captains comments (Damian Griffin) ” It’s good to be back playing after a long lay off!! After not doing much wrong in the first half things were looking good but mistakes very early in the second half cost us and we seemed to drop our heads!! It was another frustrating game but we will regroup and get on with the next game and the season”
The opening exchanges were fairly even with both teams having their chances, Pethy looked to have scored but were pulled back by a forward pass. Pethy tested the Clevedon defence with strong breaks from Sam Williams, Toby Harris and Simon Gingell. The home team countered sharply and always looked dangerous with ball in hand.
The first score came on 10 minutes after good work from Pete Dickens, Damian Griffin and Matt Hastie who released Gavin Hancock to dart over in the corner, Harry Roberts converted (0-7).
Clevedons best attacks came from Pethy kicks and seemed to create an extra man and in the space of a couple of minutes went over for two converted tries to take the lead 14-7.
Pethy playing with 14 men then produced their best passage of play and camped themselves in the home 22 for five minutes and following some slick handling Hancock went over again in the corner to close the first half 14-12.
The second half began superbly for Clevedon who scored another two tries within three minutes to kill off any fightback from Pethy. This sapped confidence from Pethy who began to kick loosely as errors crept in to their game.
Pethy still created the odd chance but lack of cohesion ended any chance of scoring where as Clevedon looked like they could score frequently and they usually did.
Pethy did cross the line once more through Jamie Adams after good work from Mike Stevens and Dominik Griffin and nearly did again in the final minutes but the official wasn’t convinced! Clevedon continued to keep the scoreboard rolling and brought up their fifty in the last couple of minutes.
