Bristol Bears tasted defeat against Loughborough Lightning at a sold-out Shaftesbury Park, despite a late fightback.
The visitors ran in five tries, with Krissy Scurfield scoring twice, while Bears’ scores came from Keira Bevan, Millie David, Lark Atkin-Davies and Reneeqa Bonner.
Loughborough led after 25 minutes through Scurfield, who collected Helena Rowland’s neat grubber kick to dot down in the corner. Rowland converted and six minutes later, hooker Treder forced her way over from a maul.
12-0 down, Bears had to find a way back into the contest, and two tries without reply courtesy of Bevan and David levelled the score going into the interval.
Wales scrum-half Bevan sprinted in for a solo try on 33 minutes, before David added to her tally for the season on the stroke of half-time.
With the contest poised at 12-apiece at the break, it was Lightning who regained the advantage three minutes into the second half when Scurfield bagged her second of the game, finishing off a slick move involving Scarratt and Carmela Morrall.
Rowland’s conversion made it 19-12 to Loughborough, who then wrapped up the bonus point on 66 minutes through Martin.
Kelter all but put the game out of sight when she muscled her way to the line for a try, which Rowland duly converted.
Atkin-Davies and Bonner crossed in the final ten minutes to secure a try-bonus point. Atkin-Davies bulldozed her way to the line from a driving line-out on 73 minutes and moments later, Bonner took an exquisite offload from Phoebe Murray to sprint half-the length of the field to score.
Bristol Bears | 15. Jasmine Joyce-Butchers, 14. Reneeqa Bonner, 13. Ilona Maher, 12. Phoebe Murray, 11. Millie David, 10. Holly Aitchison, 9. Keira Bevan; 1. Hannah Botterman, 2. Lark Atkin-Davies, 3. Sarah Bern, 4. Hollie Cunningham, 5. Abbie Ward (c), 6. Christiana Balogun, 7. Alisha Joyce-Butchers, 8. Evie Gallagher.
Replacements: 16. Holly Phillips, 17. Simi Pam, 18. Elliann Clarke, 19. Delaney Burns, 20. Gabriella Nigrelli, 21. Ffion Lewis, 22. Ella Lovibond, Courtney Keight
