Bees lost 31-14 at the Memorial Stadium in Bristol.
Full report to come:
Two late consolation tries from Dave Knight and Nick Baxter put a veneer of respectability on the final scoreline and saved Pertemps Bees from their heaviest league defeat in more than two years.
But they could not disguise a poor perfromance from the Bees who were outmuscled and outfought up front where they never built a platform to enable them to mount a serious challenge for a third consecutive league win over Bristol.
The line out was a shambles as Bristol locks Ed Pearce and Ollie Hodge easily picked off the Bees' ball, the scrum was under pressure throughout and Bristol skipper Mark Salter and number Jim Brownrigg successfully denied the Bees quick ball at the breakdown.
With no quality possession and little chance of winning their own ball at the set piecs, the Bees' backs could not make an impression and spent most of the game in grim defence.
The Bees' fortunes were summed up by fly-half Tim Walsh who fluffed an easy first half penalty from in front of the posts. That chance would have made little difference to the final scoreline but, as Bristol were only five points clear the the time, it might have put them under some pressure.
Instead Bristol built on a well-taken try from Argentinian international full-back Bernardo Stortoni after six minutes with three penalties from former Bees fly-half Jason Strange.
A fourth penalty from Strange struck a post but the Bees were unable to clear the danger and from the resulting counter-attack scrum-half Ross Blake set up Stortoni for the killer try right on the stroke of half time.
Centre Rob Higgitt crossed for another unconverted try after 44 minutes when Bristol's pick-and-drive tactics stretched the visitors' defence and Blake crossed for the bonus point try after another scintillating run from Stortoni. This time Strange added the conversion.
The Bees lost replacement winger Lenney Woodard to the sin bin for an off-side offence but they then produced their most convincing rugby when the match was already lost.
A free-flowing move resulted in Knight using his strength to touch down and Walsh added the extras. The alert Baxter then capitalised on a careless Bristol attack and he went three-quarters the length of the pitch for his fifth try of the season and 133rd of his career.
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