Walcot played with the advantage of the strong wind in the first half and kept the scoreboard ticking over with 3 successful penalties from fly half Will Andrews. Although Avon had the edge in the set scrums, they were missing their regular powerful runners in midfield and made little progress against a determined visitors’ defence. Whenever Avon did manage to move upfield to threaten, they were sent back by massive relieving kicks from Walcot to start again.

Avon’s cause wasn’t helped when livewire scrum half Kiddie Sheikh was carried off the field and when they suffered a yellow card for a deliberate knock on. However, on the stroke of half time and playing with a penalty advantage after another strong scrum surge, Rob Fitch placed a delicate chip over the line and Jake Coates leapt the highest to score his 10th try of the season.

With Jonny Batchelor converting to reduce the deficit to 2 points at the interval and with the benefit of the powerful wind, Avon felt that the match was theirs to win in the second half. Walcot had other ideas though and produced 10 minutes high intensity attacking rugby after the restart. Recycled ball and quick inter-passing along the back line created space and Joe Healey burst through midfield to touch down under the posts for a converted try to extend their lead.

Walcot’s man-of-the-match Alex Phantis impressed with some strong carries and winger James Hillier also looked dangerous. With the pressure mounting after another Walcot attack, an Avon knock-on deep inside their 22 was regathered to enable Andrews to add another try for a 16 point personal haul.

Facing a 14 point deficit, Avon eventually started to make some headway with surging runs from Xander Davis, Josh Hiscott and Jonny Griffiths but were met with uncompromising Walcot defence. Finally the pressure told as Sam Book finished off a line out catch and drive to score a try converted by Batchelor. With the gap reduced to 7 points, Avon again camped inside the visitors 22 and besieged the try line but were unable to break down the spirited resistance, enabling Walcot to celebrate at the final whistle.

The Vase final is being played on the Rec on Wednesday 26th with Walcot taking on Oldfield who defeated Corsham by 15 points to 8 in the other semi-final.