Nailsea & Backwell emerged narrow one-point winners over Yatton in this hard-fought derby encounter.

Nailsea & Backwell 15 pts

Yatton 14 pts

Nailsea & Backwell welcomed local rivals Yatton to a cold, wet and extremely windy West End Park, not a day to be a winger.

With Yatton winning their home fixture earlier in the season, Nailsea were out to put the record books straight.

Playing up the hill and against the wind ironically it was Nailsea’s winger Harrison Gould who opened the scoring after 15 minutes with a well-taken try in the corner, after a series of pick and goes by the forwards the ball was spun wide.

Ten minutes later, Yatton responded when from a scrum 15 metres out from the Nailsea line, No 8 Ed Ryder picked up and after a strong run, crashed over for a try converted by Jack Edwards.

Both teams welcomed the half time whistle and sprinted for the changing rooms for a well-earned hot tea and thaw out.

The second half continued much like the first, again ironically, it appeared easier to play up the hill against the strong and cold north wind, Yatton’s Mitch Want finding space to sprint up the hill to score under the posts, converted again by Edwards.

The half-hour found Nailsea pressurising the Yatton line, a strong run by home prop Ciaran Askew followed by a sublime offload, saw No 8 Luke Caswell crash over for a try converted by Jamie Elswood.

Five minutes before time, Nailsea were awarded a penalty, Elswood converting to make the score 15-14 to Nailsea. Despite the all-out Yatton attack that followed, Nailsea’s defence held out to the final whistle for Nailsea to take the bragging rights.

With several unavailabilities and injuries, the Nailsea’s squad system appears to be working, this win placing them joint second in the league.

The players now take a well earned mid-term break until January 5 when they welcome Hornets II, kick-off 2.30pm.

St Bernadettes 2nd XV 0 pts

Nailsea & Backwell 2nd XV 34 pts

After the recent loss to Clevedon, N&B were keen to get their league run back on track.

In strong winds and torrential rain, the weather was always going to play a major factor in the match.

Nailsea opened the scoring when centre Reece Hulland touched down from close in and just before the break, flanker George Stirling crashed over, Sam Bigley adding the conversion for a deserved 12-0 lead at half time.

The second half was not much different. but N&B were beginning to dominate and from a scrum taken against the head, Darren Shinett broke away offloading to the supporting Joe Swanson for a try.

After the restart, scrum-half Adam Weavers collected a loose ball and ran in from halfway, Bigley adding the extras.

With 20 minutes remaining, N&B scored the try of the match when from another scrum taken against the head on their own line, Shinett broke away from the base of the scrum to break the defence before offloading to the returning Greg Appleby who ran 50 metres before passing to Weavers for the touch down to make it 34-0.

The man of the match was closely contested, but went to Adam Weavers playing out of position at scrum-half.