Hornets suffered their biggest home defeat for over a season against play-off hopefuls Wells.

Hornets 12 pts

Wells 31 pts

HAVING secured the league title, Hornets slipped to the biggest home defeat for over a season against play-off hopefuls Wells.

The Hornets Patrons held their last pre-match lunch of the season with the committee entertaining some of the Wells committee members, who had travelled with a large supporting contingent as both their 1st and 3rd teams played Hornet’ respective teams at the Nest. The club was full to the brim with supporters and players, as well as some 90 people sitting down to dine.

At 1st XV level, Wells were looking to secure a play-off spot and at 3rd XV level, one point for Hornets would secure them the league title. This they did by beating Wells by 82-19.

Hornets had three influential players out injured – player-coach Alec Chase and front row partner Sonny Haines, as well as scrum-half Sean Disney. The reshuffle allowed colt Charlie Carter his first start at scrum-half, Luke Grimes filled in for Haines with Neil Chenoweth taking over for Chase.

Chenoweth announced that he would be retiring from 1st XV rugby before the start of the match, having made 18 appearances this year with nine starts and nine from the bench, taking his 1st XV tally to 131 games.

The first two scrums saw the Wells pack shunted backwards and the ball was moved wide for full-back Tom Bradley to hit the line at pace and force his way over. Jermaine Jones added the extras.

Wells however, were well up for the game and as the weather and pitch deteriorated, they gained supremacy in the loose. This gave their centres a bit of space which they made the most of, crossing twice and adding one conversion to take a 7-12 lead.

As the half drew to a close, Hornets centres managed to recycle turnover ball and Carter popped up on the wing to scoot over. The extras were missed to make it 12-12 at half-time.

The second half saw Wells up the pace in the loose and from turnover ball, they scored under the posts to make the extras a formality. An untidy line-out in Hornets’ 22 allowed the Wells No 9 to scamper over for their bonus point try as the game entered its last quarter.

Hornets tried everything to get back into the game but nothing seemed to go their way. Wells’ last try again came from a scrum and their No 10 found a gap for him to dart through. The extras were added as the visitors ran out well deserved 12-31 winners.

On Saturday, the 1st XV make the short trip to bottom side Yatton, with both teams having nothing to play for except pride and bragging rites. Hornets will be crowned champions as Yatton look certain of the drop.

Hornets 2nd XV 65 pts

Winscombe 2nd XV 0 pts

THE seconds ran out easy winners over neighbours Winscombe.

Hard running from Whatley and Sheridan and good counter-attacking from Hewlett and Owens kept Winscombe under pressure. Tries were scored by Edwards, Mounsdon, Collings, Sheridan, Hallett, Owens (2) and Hewlett (3).

In a successful season, Ashfield was the highest points scorer, with seven tries, 45 conversions and three penalties, giving him 134 points. Owens was the top try scorer with an impressive 22 tries, giving him 110 points. Thirty-one other players also crossed the try line.

Hornets played 22 games, winning 20, drawing one and losing one, picking up 14 bonus points and with an impressive 577 points difference, they proved worthy league winners.

Hornets 3rd XV 82 pts

Wells 3rd XV 19 pts

A DOMINANT performance from Hornets against second-placed Wells secured the Somerset 3 South league title to make it a historic hat-trick of league championships this season.

The home side started strongly with tries by Connor Morse, James Gould (3), Ben Briffitt (2), Des Allen, Jason Connolly and Steffan Russ. Three conversions by Paul Sheppard took the half-time score to 51-0.

After the break, tries were scored by Rob Owen, Mark Millman, Connor Davidson, Jamie Nicholson and Connolly. There were conversions for Kingman, Davidson and Declan Dorrington.

The visitors responded with three tries of their own, two of which were converted, as Hornets ended up victors by 82-19.

Although not on the list of try scorers, the man of the match was Sean Davidson.