Aaron Rice scored Clevedon’s only try of the afternoon - to take his season tally to three in four games – and Mike Taylor kicked 11 points, before being just off target with a long range drop goal in the game’s final moments.
Clevedon went 3-0 behind to a tenth minute penalty and suffered a setback five minutes later when Taylor was sent to the sin-bin.
The hosts added another penalty, before Taylor returned to the action to reduce the deficit to 6-3 – and he soon added a second, but not before the hosts had knocked over their third for a 9-6 half-time score line.
It was the home side who began the second-half brightest and they soon made the most of some early pressure with the first try of the afternoon, when a neat offload saw their fly-half break away to score under the posts – the conversion made it 16-6 with half an hour left to play.
This score seemed to wake Clevedon, who came surging back into the game with a string of powerful carries from both backs and forwards.
Prop Brian Largenton crashed through the defence before being dragged down just short, while the returning Dean Ashfield and ever dangerous Aaron Rice made headway in midfield.
Taylor kicked his third penalty to reduce the deficit to seven points, but this was short-lived as the hosts replied just minutes later to restore their 10-point advantage.
Clevedon continued to press forward and when their driving maul was illegally pulled down, Newent were reduced to 14-men and the visitors went again.
This time, the defence were legal in their methods - but following strong carries from Harvey Russell and Matt Honour, Ashfield picked out Rice to touch down to the left of the posts, with Taylor adding the conversion.
The visitors were now firmly in control and came close to finding the winning score on a number of occasions.
Fly-half Will Carpenter sliced his way through the Newent defence before being hauled down by the covering full-back – and from the next phase, Honour was halted two metres short by another desperate tackle.
With time ticking away, Taylor attempted a monstrous drop-goal from all of 50 metres, that looked as though it would find its target – but the kick faded agonisingly wide and with that, so did Clevedon’s hopes of avoiding defeat as they were forced to settle for a losing bonus-point.
Clevedon have no fixture this weekend but welcome Wells to Coleridge Vale on October 10.