Dominant first half display is enough to ensure victory over Winscombe

North Petherton reached their highest ever league position on Saturday, thanks to a home victory over Winscombe that saw them move into third place in the Somerset Premier division, just one point behind leaders Burnham-On-Sea. A dominant first-half performance by Pethy effectively ended the match as a contest by the break, with the home side leading 21-0 through tries by Chris Burge and Rob Havill, and 11 points from the boot of Tom Williams.

The second half was a much more scrappy affair as Winscombe upped their game and Pethy lost their discipline, giving away too many penalties and allowing themselves to be provoked into retaliating against some aggressive tactics by the visitors. This led to three yellow cards for Pethy and an unfortunate red card for Mike Coles, who took exception to seeing teammate Mike Taylor's head being gashed open by a Winscombe player.

However, Pethy have faced such provocation in the past and should have dealt with it better, particularly with the game having already been won. Once tempers had calmed down, Winscombe finally made their second half territorial dominance count when they forced a try in the last minute, after pressurising the now 7-man Pethy pack into an error on their 5 metre line. Read the match report here.

In other Somerset Premier results, Burnham-On-Sea became the first side to win at Bristol Harlequins this season, whilst the most entertaining match of the day must have been at Avon, where the hosts and Tor shared 70 points between them. Old Sulians remain bottom after another narrow defeat for them, and early pace-setters Wells are now second from bottom after a seventh straight defeat. All of the weekends results can be seen below.

Tribute Somerset Premier Results - Saturday 15th November 2008

Avon 35 - 35 Tor
Bristol Harlequins 14 - 17 Burnham on Sea
Chard 27 - 10 Midsomer Norton
North Petherton 21 - 8 Winscombe
Old Sulians 15 - 24 Chew Valley
Wells 26 - 29 Stothert & Pitt

North Petherton Seconds lost a second match in a row at home against a side at the top of the league to put a big dent in their hopes for promotion out of Somerset Three South. They lost by a couple of tries to a youthful and much improved Castle Cary side who maintained their 100% record for this season. However, they are yet to displace Weston Thirds from top spot having played 2 less games so far this season, and despite winning actually dropped 2 places in the league to fourth. The league remains close and a good run of form for Pethy, currently in sixth place, and a couple of bad results for the top four could yet see them join in the fight for promotion. All of the weekends results can be seen below.

Tribute Somerset Three South Results - Saturday 15th November 2008

Chard III 50 - 0 Morganians
Minehead Barbarians III HWO Hornets III
North Petherton II 14 - 24 Castle Cary
Wellington III 0 - 41 Wiveliscombe II
Weston-s-Mare III 55 - 3 Burnham on S II
Winscombe III 12 - 14 Wells III

This coming weekend sees a break from league action for the Firsts and Seconds, although the First team face a tough assignment in the second round of the Somerset Vase on Sunday afternoon away at Gordano, kick-off at 2pm. Pethy's Second XV have a friendly match away at Winscombe Thirds on Saturday afternoon, Kicking-off at 2:30pm. Pethy Thirds scheduled match against Ivel has been cancelled and they are currently in the pool for a fixture for this weekend.