MINEHEAD Barbarians entertained Midsomer Norton on Saturday in the Somerset Premier League and narrowly lost 18-15.

The Norton forwards heavily outweighed the Minehead pack and a familiar pattern in the league seemed to be repeating itself with forward dominance being marshalled by the scrum and flyhalves.

Norton, playing with the wind, camped on Minehead's line in the early stages and after several rolling mauls managed to stretch the defence to leave space on the short side for the first unconverted try.

The Barbarians seemed slow into their stride and after conceding a penalty to go 8-0 behind, Norton's flyhalf, who was being given too much time to direct operations, waltzed through some poor tackling to touch down beside the posts. The conversion increased the lead to 0-15.

This seemed to breathe life into Minehead, and with the forwards starting to supply the back line with some quality possession, overlaps were appearing. In particular, Ben White's pace and elusive running caused problems.

On one occasion, a chip ahead saw the supporting Ed Knowler collect the loose ball and score a try which Jackson converted.

Norton responded with a penalty to make the half-time score 18-7.

Minehead started the second half brightly and were beginning to realise that a patient approach on attack was needed.

A penalty kicked by Jackson made the chance of a home victory a reality, and with Justin Lett and Martin Neyens directing play well and using the wind to good effect, Norton were pinned in their own half.

The front row of Cook, Howells and Avison were holding their own, and with the backs in attacking mode, several passages of play created the overlap for Webber to score and make the score 18-15.

Minehead's dominance continued and a couple of try scoring opportunities were lost to the wrong option as the clock ran down.

A penalty opportunity to level the scores was missed and Norton claimed the points, leaving Minehead again pondering what might have been.