This reinforces their 4th placed position in Somerset Premier.

With the stormy conditions, it was a credit to both teams to deliver an enthralling performance with the strong winds dictating the pattern of play in a typical game of two halves. Oldfield took an early lead with a penalty in front of the posts from Josh James but, despite enjoying the lion’s share of territory with the strong wind at their backs, were constantly repelled by tenacious Avon defence, epitomised by Jonny Griffiths up front and Zak Harwood in midfield.

Playing into the gale, Avon sensibly kept the ball tight when they had possession and patiently worked the ball up field using their powerful runners in Josh Hiscott, Xander Davis and man-of-the-match Ian Burnell. Having reached the home 22, stand-in fly half Ollie Flight sucked in the Oldfield defence before offloading to supporting hooker Sam Book who charged over to touch down under the posts. Jonny Batchelor added the extras.

In a familiar failing, Avon didn’t deal cleanly with the restart allowing Oldfield to create the position for Zach Kennedy to burst through midfield to retake the lead with a try converted by James. After withstanding constant pressure for the rest of the half, Avon thought they had done enough after Davis stripped Oldfield’s ball carrier deep into the 22 only for Oldfield to regain possession with a turnover just afterwards. The ball was swiftly moved wide and burly 18 year old centre Finn Shakespeare added another converted try on the stroke of half time.

This gave the home side a 17 – 7 lead at the interval but Avon Coach Kai Harwood was quietly confident that his side had already done enough to win the game with their first half performance against the elements. So it proved, as Avon quickly added their second try. Veteran Damien Sawyer, acting as an emergency scrum half, spotted space on the blind side and exploited the gap to deliver a scoring pass to Iain Parris for his 17th try of the season. Batchelor converted magnificently from the touch line in the swirling win to close the gap to 3 points.

It was now Oldfield’s turn to defend with number 8 Jack Mineur leading a committed defensive performance as Avon capitalised on the strong winds to keep play deep inside the home half. Avon’s powerful pack started to crank up the pressure with 3 strikes against the head, whilst Ben May and Kane Book secured good line out possession to allow a series of driving mauls to develop. From one such attack, centre Zak Harwood made light of his ankle injury to cut a fantastic line to charge across the line for the decisive try to give Avon the lead.

Although the home side threw everything into attack, there was now only going to be one winner as Avon brought on experienced duo Chaz Meddick and Ben Hurd to tighten up play. It was no surprise when another series of forward drives led to a final penalty from Batchelor to put the result beyond doubt in his last game of the season before his wedding.