Winscombe travelled to Yeovil for a trial match against Ivel Barbarians and came away with victory.

Ivel Barbarians 0 pts

Winscombe 26 pts

WINSCOMBE travelled to Yeovil for a trial match against Ivel Barbarians, who play in Dorset and Wilts Division One, but were sadly only able to raise 17 players to compete against a squad of nearer to 30.

At the start of the second quarter, Winscombe lost their No 8 and a lock, thus using up both their substitutes and causing them to re-arrange their pack.

From the kick-off play, settled on the home 22 from where Ivel made some powerful drives that were defended well, with Aaron Ford conspicuous. He also won turnover ball and the ball was moved through the backline for a score by George House, converted by James Carter.

The Winscombe forwards continued to gain ground and Ivel could not break out of their half and after they were turned over, Louis Hooper fed James Flower, skipper for the day, who touched down for a 12-0 lead.

Soon after, Flower breached the opposition defence and House took his pass to cross under the posts for a try converted by Carter to make the score 19-0.

Max Young came on into the front row, Adam Scrase moved to the second row, from where Ollie Jones moved to No 8, with Tom Ware moving to blindside.

The Ivel restart didn’t reach 10 metres and, from the resultant scrimmage, Winscombe’s left winger reached the 22. But Ivel had strengthened their team for the third quarter and from then on spent most of it on the attack.

Against the run of play, newcomer Luke Humphrey on the right wing chased a clearance from Carter and fly-kicked to the home 22. From the scrum, open-side Ford harried the home scrum-half and his hurried pass was intercepted by Carter who converted his own try.

Ivel dominated the final quarter, but Winscombe defended with determination with Flower and Humphrey to the fore to help keep a clean sheet.