Before the match, Avon’s new style centenary shirts were officially presented to the team by members of the Elizabethan Lodge of the Bath Freemasons who have kindly sponsored their playing kit this season. A large crowd enjoyed a thrilling match containing 12 tries in all, played in wonderful conditions with the pitch looking immaculate despite the hot dry summer drought.

It didn’t take long for Avon to score the opening try as quick ruck ball was followed by a long miss pass from skipper Kane Book to find Stu Dilloway galloping into space before offloading to winger Jack Moore to cross in the corner. Avon’s powerful pack, despite missing their two regular 2nd rows, then started to turn the screw from driving lineouts and surging scrums. Ben Hurd was the first beneficiary as he crashed over from a thunderous maul, then a massive scrum drove Chew back, enabling Dan Griffin to touch down on the blind side.

With Rob Fitch adding a conversion, Avon had a healthy 17 nil lead inside the first quarter. Any thoughts of an easy victory were soon dispelled though as Chew Valley dominated the scoring over the next 20 minutes with three tries themselves. Showing their pace out wide and exploiting some miss alignments in Avon’s defence, Chew struck back to take a narrow lead approaching the interval. A Fitch penalty on the stroke of half time restored Avon’s lead.

Chew were energised by their attacking success but committed defence closed down their options before Avon increased their intensity again. A huge scrum resulted in the ball being struck against the head and swiftly transferred along the back line for Moore to again touch down in the corner. Clever tactical kicking from Fitch pinned the visitors back and another driving line out sucked in the defence for scrum half Kiddie Sheikh to dummy his way over the try line. Will Hayward made a welcome return from injury off the bench after a lengthy absence, whilst veteran prop Chris Mutlow also entered the action to clock up his 479th first team appearance.

Again Chew responded with a long range counter attack to add another converted try to narrow the gap to six points. Sensing the potential threat, Avon again reacted to put the result beyond doubt with another two tries. Griffin added his second from a scrum pushover, then man-of-the-match Dan Cousineau scored an outrageous try with a rampaging run from half way, leaving would-be tacklers in his wake. Even then Chew added a late consolation with a final converted try with the last move of the game.

Next week, Avon make the lengthy trip down to face Minehead Barbarians.