Hornets back line shone in the mud with a convincing victory over Avon.

Hornets 52 pts

Avon 0 pts

HORNETS finally played a league game after sitting out for the last three weeks due to bad weather.

Hornets were soon on the scoresheet after good work by Hogarth, Harris and Disney earned a line-out. Hogarth took Kent’s accurate throw and the pack were driven over the line with Chase the scorer and Jones slotting over the conversion.

With the forwards dominance setting up good ball and Disney’s quick hands at scrum-half, Vinnicombe hit the line at pace from full-back to collect a neat inside pass from Gadd to score. Jones added the extras for the home side to go 14-0 up after 10 minutes.

Cornish was next onto the score sheet when forwards and backs linked. Disney found himself on the wing and his chip infield over the defence allowed Cornish to race through and touch down, Jones was successful yet again.

The bonus point came when a line-out ball from Speller allowed the backs to bring more moves to the game. Gadd found the gap to go over and Jones.

Cornish rounded the half off as he managed to break two tackles on his way to the line for his second try. Jones struck his fifth conversion of the afternoon for Hornets to turn round 35-0 up.

The second half could not have started better for the home side with the kick-off not going 10 metres Hornets opted for the scrum, quick ball saw Kent on the wing and he cantered over from 20 metres. Leatherby took on the kicking duties for the substituted Jones adding the extras.

A turnover scrum in midfield allowed Griffiths to set up Vaughan for a try. Jones resumed the kicking duties, but was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt. Hornets’ last score came when Griffiths was deemed held up over the line. The resulting scrum allowed Hornets to release quick ball to the backs, with Hewlett crossing the whitewash.

Hornets now sit six points clear at the top of Western Counties North with a game in hand over nearest rivals Barton Hill. They also went past 500 points for the season in the league and have a points difference in the league of plus 310, this is 177 better than their nearest rivals.

On Saturday, a tough away game awaits them with a visit to Chosen Hill FP at Churchdown in Gloucester. Postcode for satnav is GL3 2PJ.

Greg Speller was given the honour of leading the team out as he made his 150th 1st XV appearance. A product of Hornets junior section, he captained sides through to colt level.

He was a member of the side that played in the Under-19 county cup final in 2000/01 and was a member of the senior cup final team in 2005/6. Joining an elite group, he becomes the only 16th player to have passed the150 game benchmark since the new clubhouse opened and appearance records began to be collated.

Hornets 2nd XV 24 pts

Keynsham 3rd XV 15 pts

THE seconds entertained Keynsham and recorded a 24-15 victory.

Keynsham scored an early try, despite good work by the new back row of Beresford, Snelling and Whatley. Big hits from Gardner, Nash and Graves kept the pressure on Keynsham and an interception from Owens saw him touch down under the posts, with the extras added by Ashfield.

Kingman was next to score a try, converted by Ashfield. A penalty by Keynsham made the score 14-8 to Hornets at half-time.

After the break, Keysham scored first with a converted try, but Ashfield kicked a penalty to regain the lead. Beresford hit the line at pace to touch down under the posts, converted by Ashfield for the final score of the afternoon.

Mention must go to Graves, Gardner and Whatley for all having excellent individual performances.

Chard 3rd XV 12 pts

Hornets 3rd XV 12 pts

A 77th MINUTE try from Greg White salvaged a draw for Hornets 3rd XV at second-placed Chard to maintain Hornets’ five point lead in Somerset 3 South.

After an initial onslaught by Chard, Hornets started to make progress with some good tactical kicking from Paul Sheppard. Hornets broke the deadlock after 25 minutes when Rob Owen fielded a kick in his own half and spun the ball wide to Jack Russ, who ran 60 metres to score a try in the corner.

The home side hit back five minutes before the break when the Chard full-back returned a punt 65 metres to score by the posts to give Chard a 7-5 lead at half-time.

After the break, direct running from Jackson, Dave Mitchell, Ben Briffitt and Lee Hutchinson pinned Chard back in their own half. Despite the efforts of the visitors, stubborn defence from the home side kept Hornets out.

Chard broke out of defence and a little against the run of play scored in the corner to give Chard a 12-5 lead. Briffitt came within inches of scoring for Hornets and man of the match Jackson was immense in attack and defence.

With three minutes left on the clock, White ran 75 metres to score the equalising try under the posts. The try was converted by Connolly to level the scores at 12-all.