London Two North: A last-ditch ankle tap that brought down Paul Radley as he was sprinting for the line stopped Westcliff from at least drawing a match that they should have won against Bury St Edmunds.

Westcliff lost 17-12 but had Bury on the back foot from the start. But they were unable to hold the lead.

Westcliff were just kept out on three or four occasions before live-wire scrum-half Gabriel Odediron dummied and sidestepped his way across for a try that was converted by Rob Smith.

The match settled down to a war between the 22-metre lines for a while with neither side getting the upper hand.

But Westcliff continued to look good and broke out and away upfield for Paul Radley to get over out on the left. The conversion just failed.

Bury came more into the game now and worked a converted try to narrow the gap and the referee spotted an infringement by Westcliff and the Bury kicker slotted the goal for 12-7.

Inconsistent refereeing confused both sets of supporters but could not stop Westcliff from camping on the Bury line without reward.

In the second half both teams were off-target with penalty shots but then the Suffolk side worked a try through almost non-existant Westcliff tackling and the try was converted.

This was the signal for all-out attack by Westcliff and roared on by a good crowd they got closer and closer to the line without adding to their total.

In what was the last serious attack of the game, Radley again hammered down the wing, beating all the cover except the despairing ankle tap which put him into touch inches short of the line.

Westcliff got the ball again near the corner but Bury cleared and the referee blew for full time.

“We could have won but things did not go our way at crucial moments,” said Westcliff press officer Geoff Sawyer.

“A couple of times overlaps were not spotted but that is not surprising as Bury were very quickly up in the tackle.”