BRACKNELL RFC suffered a 57-13 defeat on a difficult National League Three South West trip to Cleve.

The Lily Hill men butchered an early chance to open the scoring due to a forward pass, with Cleve then going ahead through a Steve Bath converted try on 10 minutes.

A Liam Hemming penalty reduced the arrears in the 20th minute, but the hosts then scored their second try almost immediately as wing Greg Welling crossed the whitewash.

Things got worse for Bracknell when Lewis Dennett was sin-binned for going offside, Alex Kilbane’s penalty making it 15-3.

However, some fine interplay between Peceli Nacamavutu and Stuart Mackay ended with the latter dotting down, and a Hemming conversion followed by a penalty cut the gap to just two points at half time.

The second half proved one to forget for Bracknell, though, with fly-half Joe Hall going over for Cleve’s third try, converted again by Kilbane.

Things got even worse for the visitors when Lachlane Valentine was sin-binned, and two quick scores effectively ended the game as a contest.

Cleve showed no mercy after Ben Yates became the third visiting player to be yellow carded – this time for tackling an opponent in the air – and added three further converted tries, replacement Chris MacCann bagging one and wing Pierre Tucker adding the other two.

Bracknell chairman of rugby Martin Radford confessed: “We’re on a journey, and some journeys have bumps in the road. This was a big one, but there’s no deviation from me – I maintain the future is bright.”

Bracknell return to action at home to Dings Crusaders in a home game on Saturday, October 22.

Crowthorne RFC climbed to sixth in the BB&O Premier table following a hard-fought 17-12 victory against Abingdon at the New Nest.

The win was the Crows’ first of the season, and they are next in action at Swindon College Old Boys on October 22.