Bath 18 NEC Harlequins 9 Harlequins crashed to their seventh consecutive league defeat against a Bath side just one place above their visitors in the table. Quins sink to just two points above bottom-placed Leeds Tykes and will eye their progress for the rest of the season with great interest.

Harlequins once again relied on fly half Paul Burke for their points, but two tries in the opening 20 minutes proved too big a mountain for the travelling Quins to overcome.

It took the home side just four minutes to opening their scoring account in front of an 8,000 strong Recreation Ground crowd. Scrum half Gareth Cooper fed England discard Mike Catt from a lineout and the alert fly half darted through a gap in the Quins defence and accelerated past full back Dave Slemen for a try under the posts. Young centre Olly Barkley added the simple conversion.

Burke pulled the Quins back into contention with a penalty soon after but within minutes the writing looked on the wall for the Premiership strugglers as Bath scored their second and final try of the day.

The move began from a lineout once again and quick ball saw Catt find England and Lions wing Iain Balshaw. His pace stretched the retreating defence and Tom Voyce took over the duties of charging for the line. Despite a last ditch tackle hauling Voyce down short of the line, Dan Lyle was on hand to collect the loose ball and score in the corner. Barkley failed with his conversion attempt to leave Bath 12-3 ahead.

Harlequins went close to adding to their score but Burke missed a penalty and Rob Jewell was denied a try by a solid tackle from the covering full back, Matt Perry. Indeed it was the home side who stretched their lead, via a Perry drop-goal, before Quins ended the half on a sour note when hooker Ace Tiatia was sin binned for throwing a punch.

Despite the one man deficit, Quins began the second period well and Burke clawed them back to within a score of their opponents at 15-9 with a successful penalty and drop-goal.

However, with 20 minutes remaining the Irishman was off-target with a further penalty and Bath capitalised to put the game beyond the visitors with a Barkley penalty for a final score of 18-9.

Harlequins: Leonard, Tiatia, Olver (Douglas 69), Morgan, White-Cooper, Winters (Codling 56), Sheriff, Diprose, Duncombe, Burke, Jewell, Burrows (Bell 56), Greenwood, Moore, Slemen.