Brixham 26 Clevedon 31
15th March 2003

Back to 1st XV fixtures Clevedon went to the top of the table with an exhilarating display of running rugby in the first half. Brixham had the better of the early exchanges and had the Clevedon defence at full stretch. Clevedon counter-attacked well but failed to score. Clevedon took the lead with an outstanding try by James Shopland who broke from a scrum on the half way line to score under the posts, which Steve Johnson converted. This shook Brixham and good Clevedon forward work resulted in flanker Owen Biggins going over. Johnson converted. Clevedon now had their tails up and a quickly tapped penalty resulted in a good handling movement that saw Tom Thie going over in the corner. Clevedon led 19 - 0 at the break. The second half started with Clevedon running everything and good work by Mike Lowis sparked off yet another decent handling movement ending with the youthful Johnson scoring under the posts, which he duly converted. This was the signal for a fight back by Brixham, who had the rub of the green with a few decisions. Clevedon lost their composure despite the efforts of skipper Tim Brooks trying to calm things down. Brixham scored three converted tries to put Clevedon on the rack. They succeeded in a fourth try, which tied the game 26 -26 with only injury time remaining. Clevedon started a superb counter-attack, which resulted in the outstanding Owen Biggins going over deep into injury time that proved to be the last move of the game. The football style celebrations that followed were unnecessary, particularly from some older players, but understandable in the circumstances !! Match day photos can be found here Next Saturday Clevedon are away to Crediton in the league, kick off is at 2:30pm. Back to 1st XV fixtures