With a number of players again available, Avon had a more settled side and made an immediate impact as skipper Kane Book opened the scoring in the first minute with some good support play for the first try after some tidy inter-passing between Jonny Batchelor, Lucas Pratt and Matt Thresher with the reliable Batchelor boot adding the extras.

Then fellow prop forward Chris Mutlow celebrated his 400th milestone appearance for the 1st team with a 40 metre sprint through an unsuspecting defence off a soft pass from fly half Rob Fitch to touch down near the posts for another converted try.

Attacking play and try scoring has been no problem for Avon this season but their defence has at times been flaky and so it proved again as they let Weston back into the match with two converted tries inside the next ten minutes - the first after a charged down kick and the second as their tackling was exposed on the blind side. With the scores now level, the Cashnella man-of-the-match Chris Mutlow added his second try to retake the lead after a deft inside pass from Scott Book created space for the rampaging prop to storm over the try line again.

Avon were now in the ascendancy and should have scored a few more tries with Ian Burnell’s effort being disallowed by the unsighted referee and another two opportunities being missed as Avon were guilty of trying to force the play too much rather than patiently building the pressure. But, as half time approached, they were eventually rewarded as Ben Hurd powered over for the bonus point try and a healthy 28-14 lead at the interval.

Immediately after the restart, Avon again capitalised as Josh Harding-Wyatt seized on a misdirected kick and outpaced the covering defence with a 50 metre sprint up the touchline to touch down in the corner, an effort that he was still sweating from after the match. Batchelor slotted his 5th successful conversion from out wide to increase the margin.

Although disrupted by a few injuries, Avon had more strength in depth this week on the bench with Chaz Meddick, Ryan Dellow and Ben May joining the action and it was no surprise when they added another try to their tally as Fitch took a short ball to crash over the whitewash.

Weston always looked threatening on the counter-attack and, when Avon were reduced to 14 men with another injury, they sucked in the defence to score another try on each wing as they took advantage of the resultant overlaps to reduce the deficit. Although Avon wasted a number of attacking chances by trying to force unlikely passes, they extended their comfortable lead as Lucas Pratt finished off another multi-phased attack to touch down their 7th try in the corner.

Weston had the last word with a consolation try right at the end of an entertaining game but Avon will now look to build on this result next week with a match away to Old Redcliffians 2nds.

Afterwards double try scorer Chris Mutlow said “I’m so proud to play 400 games for this great club and would like to thank all the players over the years but particularly my old captain and our current coach Kai Harwood, together with our director of rugby Clive Book who gave me my first chance at senior level in 2003 and has taught me so much since – although I’ve got another 100 games to improve my tackling!”