Hornets’ losing streak stretched to four games after losing at home to Keynsham.

HORNETS welcomed Keynsham to Hutton Moor Park in solemn circumstances, as before the game both sets of players and supporters paid tribute to Len Heywood and Alan Davies, two long-time members of the club, who sadly passed away in the week.

Coming into the game on the back of three consecutive defeats, the home side were still missing several key players.

They found themselves three points down after two minutes, but Sam Lloyd-Jones brought the scores level a few minutes later. Keynsham crossed for the first of their four tries in the seventh minute and added the conversion.

Five minutes later Lloyd-Jones added a second penalty to reduce the deficit, but Keynsham scored again through their full-back. He was soon followed by their No 8 touching down in the other corner.

Finding themselves 14 points adrift, Hornets raised their game in the last 10 minutes of the half, gaining territory through forwards and backs, which led to them dominating in certain areas of play.

This effort was rewarded when Lloyd-Jones cut through a gap in the defence to give a late pass to Ash Kinchant and he dived over in the corner to score. The conversion was missed, but Hornets went in at the break 20-11 down.

The second period started with Keynsham back in the ascendency. In the first 10 minutes they had several chances to score, fortunately only one of these was scored but the lead had been extended.

At this point Hornets made a couple of changes. Fly-half Jon Richardson, prop Luke Grimes and Ben Cox were replaced by Ryan Hedges, Sam Holland and Jake Fereday.

The reshuffle seemed to work for a time as a mixture of good defence from Hornets and poor execution from Keynsham ensured that the score remained unchanged for the majority of the half.

However, in the last couple of minutes the visitors secured their bonus point with a try from their full-back, which he also converted as Keynsham ran out 30-11 winners.

On Saturday, Hornets, who remain in third place in the league, travel to Gloucester to take on fifth placed Matson (2.30pm).