Ben’s late try seals narrow win

HORNETS Under-16s took on the Boys Club of Wales, a representative side picked from across Wales and came away with a narrow 27-26 win.

After going close to opening the scoring on a couple of occasions, it was a superb driving line-out that saw Lewis Brake touch down for Hornets’ first try. BCOW struck back with a penalty, but Hornets extended their lead when Adam Francis followed up his own kick to put Hornets 10-3 up.

The seven point cushion was short lived when the visitors kicked another penalty. Again the Hornets roared back onto the attack and the outstanding Alex Colborne was in support of Francis’ break to go over for Hornets’ third unconverted try.

Lock Josh Caulfield pounced on a loose ball to score an opportunist try that was converted by Conor Littlewood to put Hornets 22-6 to the good. BCOW scored a late converted try to make it 22-13 at the break.

The second period saw BCOW bring themselves back into the game with another converted try to make the score 22-20. BCOW’s faultless goal kicker then compounded Hornets miserable spell by hitting another two penalties to edge them in front with 10 minutes to play.

With time running out, hooker Curtis Hobbs made 20 metres before finding Adam Thompson in support. When he was tackled his pass was picked up by Ben Reseigh to touch down the winning score.

In the pack Alex Colborne, Joe Smith, Ben Reseigh and Newport Caravans man of the match Ryan Massey were excellent, while in the back division Adam Francis was the shining light.

The Under-10s had Weston to thank for a quickly re-arranged game after the scheduled game against Clifton was cancelled.

Both games were close and it was the third time this season the local rivals played each other and Weston had improved since the last time they met.

Hornets passing was mis-directed at times and two wild passes resulted in tries. Lloyd Chudley and Harry McFarling showed Hornets how to ruck over and burst through the middle and Reeve Bailey showed how to tackle around the legs.

Hornets’ power eventually won through and they won both games. In the first game, they won 5-3 with tries from Sam Hughes, Harry, Keelan Hodges-Swales and Tom Read (2).

The second game was closer and Hornets won 4-3 after being 4-0 up. Tries were scored by Sam, Reeve, Tom and Reef Morton.

The Under-13s welcomed local rivals Yatton to Hutton Moor and the rugby was as spectacular as the sunshine.

It took a full team effort to produce the first try. The Hornets’ forwards were beginning to dominate in the loose and strong runs by Adam Dover, Brandon Robinson and Alex Francis and close interplay moved the forwards deep into Yatton’s half.

Quality ball delivered by Bryn Solomon saw Barney Derham in space to round for a great try, converted by Jordan Humphris.

Yatton forced their way over for a good try, but after good runs by Thomas Cocking and Jack Mohide, Derham crossed again, converted by Humphris.

Following a great run by Humphris, Blake Williams set up Bryn Turner for a try. Soon after, Solomon gathered the ball and scampered over to make it 24-5 at the break.

After the break, another clean ruck ball and Solomon crossed for another try. Jack Caple had some great runs, as did Jacob Parkman and also a fantastic individual run by Spencer Coe.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the last try when Keane Williams barged over for his first try of the season to make it 34-5.

Special mentions to Brandon Robinson for an outstanding all-round performance, along with No 8 Alex Francis.

The Under-7s lost 8-12 against a well-organised Clifton team. Hornets made a slow start and at the break, the score was 2-2.

In the second half, a well-disciplined and focused Clifton took control and despite some determined tagging, Clifton’s support play was too strong and they ended the game deserved 6-3 winners. Hornets scorers were Max, Oliver and Regan.

The second game featured all new players. Clifton started strongly again and showed signs of dominating this match, but Hornets refused to roll over and defended well as the half ended at 3-2 to Clifton.

After the break, Hornets started to show some good attacking play with some great individual runs down the sideline. Despite this, Clifton held firm and won the game 6-5. Scorers were Adam (3), Max and Fin.

After the matches Lee awarded Harry the Hornet to Lucas.

Hornets squad: Harry, Harvey, Fin, Willow, William, Billy, Max, Lucas, Cameron, Mason, Adam, Regan, Finley C, Jacob, Oliver.

The Under-11s played host to Clifton and the visitors opened the scoring just before the end of the first. The second quarter was end to end stuff with both teams playing some excellent rugby.

The third quarter was played to the same high standard as the previous two. Close to the end of the quarter, Hornets gave away a penalty, the clearance kick from Clifton was collected deep in Hornets territory by Charlie Fairhurst who somehow managed to run through to score a fine individual try.

The final quarter was once again equally contested with both teams putting everything into it both attack and defending the game ended with no further scores, ending the game at 5-5.

A special mention to Mitch Hawkes who was signalled out by the Clifton coaches for an excellent performance.

Squad: Amy Coles, Ayden Chenoweth, Bradley Lucas, Charlie Fairhurst, Eddie Williams, Ethan Loveridge, Jack Weaving, Joe Frost, Lockie Carver-Cox, Lois Bird, Luke Collins, Mitchell Hawkes, Nathan Langdon, Oscar Browne, Owen Brake, Rhys Clarke, Sebastian Wood, Tom Cattermole and Oliver Wales on his debut for the team.

WESTON Under-8s played host to local rivals Bridgwater and the game started well with Weston attacking from the start with some strong runs from newcomers Tommy and Ronnie.

Weston soon crossed the line with a fine run from Danny. Bridgwater replied with a couple of excellent scores, but Weston again showed great character with some fine tagging and further tries from Oliver, Tom, Jaydan and Danny to make the final score 6-6.

The Under-11s went behind to Bridgwater, but replied when Max Seymour-Shove sent James Feltwell over the line.

A well-organised and competitive Weston kept Bridgwater at bay, despite their best efforts and great rugby from Weston secured three more tries from Reece White, Joe Harper and Harrison Land.

Bridgwater scored first after the break, but great efforts by Will Durston, Matthew Ogborne and Josh Edwards was soon rewarded with tries from Rhys Mathews, Jimmy Bamsey and Land.

Bridgwater scored again, but Weston replied swiftly with Joe Ham adding five points. Seymour-Shove drove through the Bridgwater pack, but was stopped short until an excellent run by Huw Pearse saw him cross the line.

After the conversions, the final score was 64-17 to Weston. Man of the match was Max Seymour-Shove.

The Under-9s hosted Bridgwater and hoped to reverse the result when they lost earlier in the year. Unfortunately, they lost both games but it was a lot closer this time around.

In the first game, Bridgwater were first to score, taking advantage of the large pitch, their speedy players ran two tries by half time. Dylan Way led the tackle count and was supported by Charlie, Thomas and George.

The second half was a much closer affair with Weston scoring two tries through Charlie Harding and Paige Nigh. Louis Boon played his best game to date using his pace to make some fine tackles. Final score was 4-2 to Bridgwater.

In the second game, the bigger and more physical away side dominated proceedings. Bradley Robinson ran well as did Dylan, Paige and Thomas, but could not breach a solid defence.

The girls defended well with Lottie Dadds and Ellie Redman leading the tackle count. They were supported by Dylan, Ciaran, Joel and Charlie. Bridgwater scored in both halves to win the contest 6-0.

YATTON Under-8s took on Wellington and were involved in three tremendous matches.

The earlier encounter saw Wellington outgun Yatton with some well drilled moves winning both matches 8-5. This time, Yatton produced their best display of the season with fast, end-to-end rugby.

The first game set the pace as both teams looked to run, and at the break it was 2-2. Wellington pressed their home advantage and nudged ahead finishing up at 6-4.

Game two saw Yatton first out of the blocks and hold on to the lead throughout. At half-time they were 2-1 ahead and at the final whistle it was 5-3.

With everything to play for, one last short game saw both teams really go for it and in the end it was honours even and a fair result at 2-2.

Yatton try scorers were: Adam Foley (4), Ben Clarke (3), Cameron Baines (2), Matthew Bailey and Aaron Ralfs.

WINSCOMBE Under-13s took a big scalp at the weekend when they beat a visiting team from Chippenham.

The home side were on the score sheet first when Adam Elkins made a strong run deep into the opposition’s half. He offloaded to Joe Hartshorne who passed for Tom Amer to score.

Chippenham were stunned when a clearance kick from Winscombe, deep from their own half, was gathered up by Amer. The ball was turned over in the maul and Chippenham cleared, but only as far as Amer who then weaved his way through to score under the posts, making the conversion easy for Will MacArthur for a 12-0 half-time lead.

Chippenham started the second half the stronger and took a scrum against the head, fed the ball out to the backs who finished it off in the corner for their first try. It was duly converted.

Winscombe’s response was swift with a good run from scrum-half Marsh. Tristan Greene was next to get close to scoring, but he too was stopped short of the line.

Chippenham gave away a penalty on the 22 metre line and a quick take by Greene saw him touch down between the posts. MacArthur converting again.

Winscombe crossed the line again after good work by Elkins and Amer, but Patrick Merryfield crossed the dead ball line.

Chippenham had the last say when they scored an unconverted try as Winscombe ran out 19-12 winners.