Cleve 13Clifton 18

CLIFTON'S South West One title charge continued as they defeated Cleve 18-13 in a full-blooded derby.

The Henbury-based club made it 11 wins from 11 games to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season.

Cleve dropped further into the relegation zone, while Bournemouth leapfrogged Old Redingensians to move into second after their home win against Weston-super-Mare. The game was played in contrasting styles, with Clifton trying to move the ball wide and attack through their backs against Cleve's more direct approach.

That's not to say that Cleve didn't use their backs, with former Bristol centre Jon Pritchard making the hard yards and setting targets for the forwards, and former Weston wing Takora Joy Mademombe a real threat out wide.

A third-minute penalty from Cleve scrum-half Lee Audis opened the scoring, but it was Clifton who crossed the whitewash two minutes later with a sweeping move rounded off by centre David Butler. Fly-half Andy Bell converted.

Strong defence dominated the remainder of the period and it was 7-3 at the break.

A 46th-minute Bell penalty was cancelled out by a long-range penalty effort by Audis 19 minutes later.

The game sparked into life in the 70th minute when former England international David Rees scored after good work from Sam Wilkes. The hooker drove towards the line and when he was brought down the ball was moved to Rees and the clever angle of his run beat the defence. Bell converted.

Three minutes later, Cleve hit back with a 60-metre effort involving backs and forwards, which was finished off by flanker Sam Roach, who took the inside pass to crash over in the corner. Audis converted to make it 15-13.

A further Bell penalty proved to be enough for Clifton to secure the points.

Cleve, however, would have been encouraged by their performance.

Weston-super-Mare dropped to seventh after losing 44-10 at Bournemouth.

Wing Chris Crichton scored a consolation try, with fly-half James Mackay adding a conversion and a penalty for the Seasiders.