Hornets extended their winning sequence with a fine performance against Thornbury.

Hornets 54 pts

Thornbury 7 pts

AFTER last week’s impressive fight back to beat Bideford 18-16, Hornets extended their South West Division 1 winning run to four games with a fine performance against Thornbury.

After some wayward kicking by Thornbury, Letherby started to use the wind to his advantage and put in some massive kicks to gain territory.

It was not until the 15th minute that the breakthrough came when Letherby pushed a penalty deep into the Thornbury half. The line-out was secured and the ball worked in field until a ruck formed.

Disney moved the ball quickly to Letherby and with the Thornbury defence focused on the Gadd brothers, Jones appeared from nowhere to explode through the gap and score under the posts. Jones also slotted the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

More pressure soon resulted in a second try. An attacking scrum for Hornets was lost, but Thornbury could not control the loose ball and Disney pounced and audaciously flicked the ball through his legs to Harris to crash over for his first try for the 1st XV, converted by Jones.

Hornets edged further ahead through a Jones penalty, but Thornbury scored next to pull the score back to 17-7 and to give the Hornets defence a wake-up call.

The hosts’ next score came when Disney darted through a gap from a scrum, offloaded to Littlewood who passed to Harris for him to register his second score of the day.

A further score soon followed from the restart when the ball was moved quickly through the backs for Cornish to touch down in the corner for his first of the afternoon.

The second half saw Hornets continue where they had finished the first. The forwards through Grimes, Chase and Harris crashed the ball forward. A ruck sucked in the defence and then the ball was spread along the backs for Bradley to score in the opposite corner.

From the restart, Hornets scored again when Vinnicombe broke a tackle, made ground and offloaded to Littlewood who, despite the attention of two defenders, was able to crash over to extend the score to 37-7.

The next try came when a looping pass was intercepted by Cornish on the halfway line. The result was inevitable as Cornish scored under the posts, with Jones adding the extras.

Cornish quickly added a further try for his hat-trick and Hornets eighth try. There was still time for a another try when the ball was moved wide for Bradley to score his second of the afternoon and finalise the scoring for a tremendous 54-7 victory.

Hornets consolidated their fifth place in the league and Saturday’s trip to Wadebridge gives them the opportunity to push into the top four.

Hornets 2nd XV 32 pts

Midsomer Norton 2nd XV 25 pts

A CONSISTENT selection gave Hornets a great platform with a first-half lead of 22-10 with tries from Jake Fereday, Brad Ashfield Adam Vaughan and Greg Speller. Norton came back in the second half and were leading until the final minutes when Charlie Carter scored two late tries to snatch victory.