MINEHEAD Barbarians ended their best-ever season with a championship winning 88-7 annihilation of Bristol opponents Old Ashtonians at home on Saturday.

Their crushing win gave them the Somerset Division One title on points difference from Wells after a neck and neck battle throughout the season.

Their desire to sign off in style before their home crowd was reflected in a scintillating display of open rugby, although in the opening minutes the visitors served notice that they had not come to be sacrificial lambs as they launched an onslaught on the home line.

However, the Minehead defence, which has been the best in the division all season, held firm and having taken play into their opponents' 22, skipper Chris Lock charged down a kick for Chris Jackson to follow up and score a try which he duly converted.

He quickly added a further converted try following an outside break by Martin Neyens, linking with Ben White and Joe Waterman, then Neyens added a solo try converted by Jackson and Waterman followed up a probing kick by Chris Thorne to make it 26-0.

MInehead's free-scoring right wing David Webber got in on the act with a well-rehearsed change of direction from good lineout ball and the rejuvenated Paul Graddon was the first forward on the scoresheet from a short penalty after Ashtonians killed the ball near their line.

From the restart a strong run by White found Lock and Edward Knowler in support before handing on to Jackson for the touchdown. The try scorer duly converted, making the score 45-0.

Ashtonians, to their credit, took advantage of a rare lapse in the Minehead defence to pull back a converted try.

After the interval, Neyens converted another Jackson try and No 8 Simon Jones made a powerful run from the base to feed scrum half Dan Bishop for a further five-pointer.

Neyens soon showed his emerging class and confidence as he sliced through for a superb solo effort again converted by Jackson.

White marked his impressive league debut with a converted try and was also prominent in the handling movements which led to Webber completing his hat-trick before Neyens and Jackson had the last word in a resounding victory.

Minehead Barbarins: J Waterman, D Webber, C Thorne, C Jackson, B White, M Neyens, D Bishop, A Floyd, C Howells, S Morris, P Graddon, E Knowler, M Lawrence, S Jones, C Lock, replacements R Smith, D Hurley, B Slade.