Hornets get back to winning way with a derby victory over Yatton.

HORNETS welcomed local rivals Yatton to Hutton Moor on Saturday and entertained the crowds with an eight try victory that saw them take fourth position in the league.

It also ensured that they achieved the double against their nearest opponents having won at Yatton earlier in the season.

In the first half, Hornets had things pretty much their own way and took the lead after just five minutes as Kirk Middlemiss crossed the line following a well-worked move in the centres. Sam Lloyd-Jones added the extras and Hornets were seven points up.

Within 10 minutes Hornets had doubled their lead with Middlemiss again on hand to touch down, this time it came when he sped through the middle and under the posts for his second. Lloyd-Jones was successful with the easy conversion.

With forwards and backs linking up well in open play and causing problems for the visiting defence, Phil Hogarth took a crash ball in the centres and scored under the posts. Lloyd-Jones was enjoying this easy start to the day with the boot and duly despatched the conversion.

The score remained at 21-0 until half-time and that is testament to Yatton’s attitude in defence as they stopped several Hornets attacks.

During the break, Luke Grimes was replaced by Ryan Hedges and the home side came out firing again in the second period.

With their centres running the opposition ragged it was another move straight from the training ground that saw them create the overlap and spread the ball wide for Adam Vaughan to cross the whitewash for the bonus point try. The conversion from out wide was unsuccessful.

With Dave Geddes now entering the fray in place of Phil Hogarth, Yatton enjoyed their most successful spell of the game as the Hornets pack took time to resettle.

Firstly they scored a converted try and followed it up a few minutes later with a penalty to bring the score to 26-10. A gap that could have been smaller had more of the 17 penalties given away by Hornets had been within kicking range.

The resurgence was short lived though as the hosts re-established control and heaped pressure on their opponents, which resulted in winning turnover ball.

It was fed to the backs and spread wide for Lloyd-Jones to create the extra man in the line from full-back and score in the corner. He missed the extras, but his try finished off Yatton and led to Hornets scoring two further tries in five minutes.

The first came from John Ferguson as he took an inside pass superbly one-handed and dashed for the line.

The final score was a showcase for the back row as a planned move saw Sean Disney pass to Dexter Nettleton off the base of the scrum, he drew his opposite number and popped to Greg Speller who rounded the full back and touched down under the posts. Lloyd-Jones added the two points and the referee signalled the end of the game, with six minutes plus injury time left to play.

With Hornets dominant at this stage there could possibly have been more tries, but no one was complaining as the players and supporters made for the bar.

Hornets now have a run of games from which they hope to continue in this manner and pick up points to cement their position in the top four. On Saturday, they travel to Stroud, kick-off 2.30pm.