Clevedon won this friendly encounter at a canter. Someone scored in the corner within the first 30 seconds and the points were racked up at regular intervals after that. Chris Cates was excellent, scoring three tries and for the first time this season looked the part of a fully paid up member of the left wing club. He even had the nerve to convert one of his tries.

The starting front-row of Hill, Murray and Brad had their opponents in all sorts of trouble. Unfortunately, although playing well, young Brad had to leave the field early because of a neck injury and was replaced by man-mountain Tony Dauncey, sporting a newly shaven head.

The second row of Durant and Pearce used their size to advantage and were prominent throughout the game. Durant had a fine charge for the line from 25 metres, but was pulled down 5 metres short after being caught by a Clifton speed merchant. The crowd were already celebrating this fine burst of speed but had to curtail their celebrations until a few minutes later, when Cates scored the first of his three tries.

The back row of Tucker (I don't believe it either), West (he can't believe it) and Sweet (no not Mike) hadn't played together, ever. It didn't show at all. They were continually harassing and worrying the life out of the Clifton backs, who were forced into an unusual amount of bad passing and dropped balls. The ever-alert centre pairing of Brooks and Freeman pounced on these and caused havoc every time they got the ball. Throughout the match, Brooks couldn't decide if he wanted to be a back or a forward because he was always somewhere in the thick of things. The ball was spun wide at every opportunity and this gave Bushell and Cates a chance to show their trickery on the ball. Their opposite wingers had a torrid time, so much so in fact, they had to resort to illegal tactics by late tackling or blatant obstruction.

Unfortunately, debutant Sweet had to leave the field with a broken collarbone, correctly diagnosed by Clevedon Physio, Morphy Richards. He was replaced by Tom Thie, who had to be replaced himself sometime later by second teamer Craig Lacey, who had earlier been replaced during the second team match against Gordano. Lacey played well during his fifteen minutes of fame and was the only man in the country that day to play in two winning sides. One to tell the grand children about anyway.

The O'Rourke half back pairing controlled the game with some fine attacking and defensive work - but then they always do, don't they? Your correspondent isn't quite sure who scored all the points, but it doesn't matter, it was a good team performance.

Dunn, Fox, Biggins, Shopland, Frake and Groves found themselves surplus to requirements this week. Coach Hanlon was a very pleased chap indeed with the performance of his Clevedon side, but warned that a tougher match lies ahead next week.

Match day photos can be found here

Next week Clevedon are at away to Thornbury, KO 3 o'clock.