A large crowd of former players attended Norton Down to watch a fixture between two local teams who haven’t played each other in recent seasons.

The Norton pack showed their power in the early minutes, but Wells took the lead just after ten minutes with a penalty.

Midsomer Norton drew level a few minutes later with a penalty by Taylor. Playing into the wind, the visitors kicked well for position and from a lineout close to the Norton line, set up a driving maul. The referee adjudged Norton to have stopped the drive illegally and awarded a penalty try. Norton then suffered another injury worry when centre, Martin, had to leave the field and the backline had to reshuffle, with Blackmore joining the field.

Wells took advantage of this and extended their lead with a try from a quickly taken penalty.

The home pack destroyed the opposition scrummage close to the Wells line and the Norton forwards swarmed over the line and in the confusion, flanker Button was awarded the try.

Now in the ascendency, the forwards set up a driving maul at a lineout and steam-rolled over the line with hooker, Rose, collecting the try. With Taylor slotting a conversion, it looked like Norton would go into the break with the lead, but in the dying moments of the half, Wells finished off a move to score in the corner. This gave Wells a one-point lead at the break, 19–20.

Now playing down the slope and the wind at their backs, Wells started the second half well, and extended their slender lead after nine minutes with a converted try. Norton’s pack continued to harass and pressurise the visitors into mistakes and repeatedly won opposition ball at the set piece.

This possession allowed the Norton backs some attacking ball and a well worked move finished with fly half, Abbott, ghosted over in the right hand corned to reduce the deficit. Taylor added the extra points again to make it a one-point game, 26–27.

In the last minutes of the game, Wells were camped on the Norton 22 metre line, when replacement Church pounced on a loose ball and sprinted the 80m up the slope to the Wells try line. He was caught right on the line, but was able to get the ball down to score. Again, Fly half, Taylor, slotted the conversion, extending Norton’s lead to six points 33–27.

This left just enough time for Wells to restart the game; Norton safely gathered the ball from the kick and put the ball into touch to finish the game and collect their third win of the season.

On Saturday, Norton are back on the road to Cheltenham.