Hornets Under-13s lose a evenly-contested game at Chew Valley.

HORNETS Under-13s travelled to Chew to take part in an evenly-contested game and just failed to come away with a win.

Chew got off to a fast start and ran in a couple of early tries. In the tight, the forwards started to knock Chew back and Solomon and Holyday were starting to cause problems, but Chew scored again just before half-time.

After the break, Hornets began to pass the ball at all opportunities. From a scrum on halfway, Holyday picked up and scorched over for Hornets’ first try. Further runs by Dover, Tanner and Entwistle kept the ball in Chew’s half.

A line-out to Hornets saw good ball which was quickly moved along the line to Francis, who stepped inside his man to score a great try under the posts, converted by Humphris.

A good scrum presented Solomon with quick ball, which was spun wide for Derham to score the equaliser, but Chew crossed for a try in the corner for the winner.

The Under-10s played at the Keynsham festival and in their pool they had four games, including one against Keynsham, a team Hornets have never beaten.

However, too many penalties were given away and Hornets also suffered with try attempts by Reeve Bailey, Alex Leeks, Tom Reed (twice) and Lawrence Pilgrim all being held up on the try line.

Cinderford won the first game 3-0, the second game with Chippenham was drawn 2-2, Keynsham won the third game 4-0 and Hornets won the last game against Cleve 1-0. Try scorers were Reef Morton (two) and Tim Morris.

Big tackles were put in by Bailey, there were surging runs by Harry McFarling and Lloyd Chudley and both Bens played a big part in the rucks. Tom Biggs and Adam Dawood both did well on each wing.

The Under-11s were drawn in a tough group at the Keynsham festival with St Mary’s OB, Walcot, Chippenham and Keynsham.

In the first game against Walcot, they started slowly, but scored a try through Oscar Browne. Unfortunately, Walcot equalised just before the final whistle.

The second game against St Marys was a physical encounter, Hornets coming out victors two tries to one. Browne scored his second of the day and Charlie Fairhurst getting the other.

Next up were a well-drilled Chippenham team. The only highlight for Hornets was a great run down the wing by Amy Coles, who was unfortunate to be bundled into touch while crossing the try line.

The final game against Keynsham was an excellent game, with Keynsham scoring the only try of the match.

Well done to the squad of Amy Coles, Ayden Chenoweth, Bradley Lucas, Charlie Fairhurst, Eddie Williams, Ethan Loveridge, Kyle Godwin, Lockie Carver-Cox, Lois Bird, Luke Collins, Miguel Hawkes, Nathan Langdon, Oscar Browne, Owen Brake, Rhys Clarke, Sebastian Woods and Tom Cattermole.

The Under-8s squad of Robson, Roman, Daniel R, Daniel M, Daniel R, Charley, James, Lewis, Alfie, Andon and Alexander all played well at the Keynsham festival.

Although they lost all their games, Hornets performed well as a team, with good tagging and passing.

WESTON Under-16s travelled to Winscombe for their opening game of the season.

Winscombe put Weston under pressure which resulted in an early try. The visitors then got into their stride and after excellent defence, Weston notched their first points of the season through a George Chapman penalty.

Weston were hampered by the loss of Kane Chamberlain midway through the first half and conceded another try in the process.

Winscombe started the second half strongly with another score, but Weston started to take control through great work by the pack with Bill Fisher, Kieran Pulsford and James Greatorex leading the way.

After a series of surging drives by the forwards, Weston scored through Bill Fisher with Chapman adding the conversion making the score 17-10 to Winscombe. In the dying minutes, Jack Bridgman burst through the Winscombe defence only to be denied by a high tackle.

Weston piled on the pressure from the ensuing penalty, but the Winscombe defence held strong and with the last play of the game Winscombe added a further try to make the final score 24-10.

PJ Grimes, Bill Fisher, Kieran Pulsford, James Greatorex and Kye Carpenter all had storming games, with Sam Wilce putting in some crunching tackles. Congratulations to Connor Sweeney for a fine game on his debut.