Clifton one point away from clinching title

Clifton completed the double over local rivals Cleve with a 29-7 victory. The Henbury-based side sit at the summit of South West One knowing that they need a single point from their remaining three fixtures to secure the title.

They could effectively wrap things up this weekend when they travel to third-placed Bournemouth, who came unstuck at Weston on Saturday.

Clifton opened their account in the seventh minute, when fly-half Andy Bell was brought down by a high tackle close to the Cleve line, the referee having no option other than to award a penalty try, which Bell converted.

Cleve, who were forced to make several changes to their starting 15, looked disjointed and lacked creativity in their attacks.

In the 15th minute, Clifton won a line-out and set up a ruck in midfield. The ball was recycled and moved to lock Darren Barry, who sprinted on to the ball before releasing a perfectly timed pass to second-row partner Paul Reed to score in the corner.

Cleve began to come back into the game and enjoyed their best spell of the match. A series of thrusts by the visitors earned a penalty and, when Cleve scrum-half Lee Audis took a quick tap, he was felled by Clifton prop Chris Rowlands, who was in an offside position and was sent to the sin-bin for his actions

Clifton struck again in the 33rd minute when Bell spotted some poor alignment in the Cleve defence. His half-break created the overlap for full-back Rob Viol to race in for another converted try.

Cleve managed to score a try on the stroke of half-time when stand-off Nathan Huntley caught the home side's defence offguard to score, with Audis adding the extras to make it 19-7 at the break.

The second half was a stop-start affair, with a series of injuries and the usual merry-go-round of replacements from both teams affecting the flow of the game.

Cleve spent large parts of the remainder of the game in their own half and their set-piece began to deteriorate.

With the Clifton pack now in the ascendancy at the scrum, a strike against the head saw Clifton No 8 John Levis waltz in from five metres to score before they finished things off with a well-worked try by wing Sam Kent, which sealed their victory.

Weston beat Bournemouth 24-16. Flanker George Wright, on his full debut, clinched the spoils for the Seasiders when intercepting and running in from halfway on 56 minutes.

Another young back-rower, Dan Fry, also crossed, with James Mackay adding a conversion and three penalties.