North Petherton claim New Year win over Bridgwater & Albion (From This is The West Country)

North Petherton claim New Year win over Bridgwater & Albion

11:00am Tuesday 8th January 2013 in Sport

South West 1 West

North Petherton 48 Bridgwater & Albion 0

NORTH Petherton kick-started the second half of their season in superb style by battering neighbours Bridgwater & Albion.

An 800-strong Beggars Brook crowd witnessed some nervy early exchanges before Harry Roberts opened the scoring with a penalty.

Bridgwater attempted to speed the game up with quick tap penalties and only excellent tackling from Damian Griffin and Matt Brown prevented scoring opportunities.

In the 12th minute, a James Cox lineout and some slick passing along the back line allowed Gavin Hancock to speed past a couple of tacklers, chip over the last man, collect his own kick and dot down to the left of the posts; Roberts converted to give Petherton a 10-0 lead.

Bridgwater continued to move the ball wide at the earliest opportunity and, in the 20th minute, a loose ball was scooped up by Oscar Tregenna, who shook off a couple of tacklers to sprint 60 metres to the try line; Roberts converted.

Albion continued to come back, typified by Dan Kemmish who threw his body on the line on many occasions but the half ended 17-0 to Petherton.

The first 15 minutes of the second half became a battle of the collisions with Albion putting in some huge hits on the Pethy strike runners.

Carl Brown harassed Albion all afternoon and, after pressurising a defensive clearance, the ball landed in the hands of James Carter whose dexterity enabled a pass to Griffin and a well-timed offload to Hancock, who darted in to the corner from 20 yards out.

The last 25 minutes was totally dominated by Petherton who ran in another 26 points.

Good work from Lloyd Williams, Hancock and Roberts saw captain Carter score out wide and then, from a five-metre scrum, solid footballing skills saw Aaron Gibbs score in the left corner; Roberts converted.

Within a minute, Petherton extended their lead as Matt Brown crossed the line following a superb team move to lead 41-0.

The final try of the match belonged to Carter who impressively led from the front, taking the ball up the middle and suffocating any Albion attacks. The ball was moved quickly to Miles McNeillie, Williams, Tregenna and into the hands of the skipper who lunged over the line and just inside the corner flag; Sam Williams added the extra two.

Match sponsors: John Lang – Gentleman Farmer of Moorland; Mark Fitchew – proprietor of the Enmore Inn.