WINSCOMBE Under-8s had three wins over Taunton.

WINSCOMBE Under-8s had three wins over Taunton and in the first game, an early Taunton try was quickly matched as George Alvis carved his way through to open their account.

Next Julian Laws let loose George who ran in a second strong try and after a good try from Taunton, a classic switch between Lewis Gilbert and Harley Walton kept Winscombe in the hunt. After a period of loose hands, Ben Morris found Sam Cook who managed to find his way over the line to score and finish the first half 4-3 up.

The second half saw Winscombe's defence working well with plenty of sideways running by Taunton as they failed to make headway. Sam Smith made a break and passed to Ollie to break the deadlock. Winscombe continued to keep up pressure, made fewer mistakes, and with the help of another great switch between Lewis and Harley scored the final try to win 6-3.

In the second game, strong runs by Ollie Dark, Jonah Storey and William Pearce got Ru Schofield close to the try line with William finishing off the team's hard work.

James Fowler stole the first of several loose balls to release William again to score. William stole another loose Taunton ball and launched Jonah to score another. Taunton scored soon after but again William broke through, teamed up with James who quickly passed to Ru to score.

A Taunton knock-on was punished as Jonah avoided outstretched hands coming from all directions to score and give Winscombe a comfortable 4-1 lead. James was working hard and got through for a well deserved try. William continued to defend, steal and score three more tries in what was an outstanding performance that ended 8-2 to Winscombe.

In the third game, Taunton scored first and pressure continued as Winscombe failed to hold on to the ball with a series of knock-ons. An individual breakaway try by Ollie and George's quick reactions kept them in the game. 3-2 to Taunton at half time.

William leveled the game for Winscombe, but good strong running by Taunton kept them in the lead. Winscombe were passing well with a move from James, Ollie, Max, Ben and Ru, but again a knock-on prevented a score, but Taunton scored again to lead 5-3.

Archie passed to James who began the attack on the Taunton lead with the first comeback try. Max passed to Ben, then James and finally William who levelled the score at 5-5, but Taunton had possession.

Good tagging allowed Winscombe to regain possession with Ru's pass to James, whose strong try gave them the lead in the last few moments, to win 6-5.

The Under-11s hosted Keynsham and the coaches elected to play one long match with rolling substitutions to enable novice players to partake.

Initially the teams seemed well matched but good drives from the Winscombe forwards enabled Tristan Greene to go over for a try which was converted by Joe Hartshorne.

Following the restart a good kick to touch from Archie Clark took play back into Keynsham's half. However, Keynsham were looking more dangerous and eventually Winscombe succumbed to pressure and conceded an unconverted try.

After the restart Keynsham continued their advance. However the ball was turned over by Lewis Yallop, George Marsh collected from the scrum and ran half the length of the pitch to score Winscombe's second try which Joe H again converted.

Keynsham came back strongly from the restart and soon put Winscombe under pressure. They were denied what looked like an almost certain breakaway try by the determination of Lewy Wall who pursued and successfully tackled the Keynsham player.

Winscombe went into the second half leading the match. However Keynsham continued to relentlessly pressurise the Winscombe team and gave a demonstration of slick passing which led to them scoring three tries, one not converted, without reply from the home side for a final score of Winscombe 14, Keynsham 24.

HORNETS Under-15 beat Wells 17-5 in round 1 of the Bristol Junior Combination Plate in what became a close battle between evenly matched forwards.

Hornets opened the scoring after a long faze of play in the first half when the forwards rucked the ball for Dec Dorrington to get quick ball out to Matt Armstrong who ran 40 metres then off loaded to Sam Barton to finish in the corner.

Wells forwards won plenty of ball and put pressure on Hornets defence but failed to finish and Hornets cleared up the field into the opposition half. Hornets forwards powered on again and this time a strong run from Tom Whittakerr crashed over the line to score, and Simon Owens converted for the extra points.

The opposition continued to attack well and some poor tackling allowed them to move the ball and score their first and only try.

The second half saw both teams attacking and defending hard and furiously, Hornets soaked up a barrage of attacks and eventually the ball was kicked to touch and Hornets were awarded a line-out, from where captain Louis Symiakos set up a ruck and Tom Whittaker picks up and scores again. The final conversion was missed but Hornets seal their place in the next round Man of the match was Tom Whittaker.

The Under-12s travelled to play Dursley for what is one of the season's prime fixtures.

After securing renewed sponsorship from Upland Business Specialist, the players were looking forward to the challenge.

In the extreme weather conditions, both teams played excellent rugby, trying to move the ball at every opportunity.

Tom Townsend captained the side for the first time and led by example, distributing the ball well. Connor Campbell led the forward effort, setting up plenty of ball for Ryan Heeney to make his usual sniping breaks, creating space for Jacob Hill and William Hillman.

After a hard-fought first half the scores remained level but in the second half this changed with both sides exchanging tries in end to end rugby.

Hornets scored first after Jacob Hill drove the ball towards the opposition's line, supported by Billy Phillips and Josh Hooper, for Edward Hill to score in front of the posts.

The second try came in a similar fashion with Leon Counsell setting up Will Kennett for his powerful dive over from two meters out. The third try came from the best move of the match involving Dan Murtagh releasing Josh who beat the defence and score a well worked try.

Dursley replied on each occasion with excellent play for the score to finish 3-all.

The Under-12s will train at home on November 22 and 29, and are still looking for new players. So any Year 7 boys who have played rugby for their school and are interested in joining a club team, please contact Adrian Heeney on 01934 412033

The Under-13s squad entertained Frampton Cotterell in a hastily arranged match after Keynsham cried off. Hornets took the opportunity to give a number of players a game in the starting 15 and also to try some of the regular players in new positions.

Hornets attacked from the kick off and a were two tries up before Frampton realised what was happening, one of these after an excellent break by Jamie Hoare which ended with Curtis Langdon forcing his way over the try line. The second was after a charge through the middle by Dan Bosworth and Thomas Davison which finished with Josh Caufield crashing over. Neither was converted.

Frampton then got their act together and scored a breakaway try and would have scored another except for a dropped ball just short of the line That was the beginning of the end, however, for the Frampton side as Hornets really got going, the third try of the first half came from Thomas Davison who raced almost threequarters of the pitch to touch down, converted by Mitch Randell. A number of changes took place at half time but Hornets were in dominant mood and playing some excellent rugby. Good running and tackling by Michael Burnham, Michael Long and Jake Powell helped pave the way for a further six tries, one each to Jamie Hoare, Rhys Hayes, Kieran Manning and Josh Caufield and two to Dan Bosworth. Two of these were converted by Gareth Brock and the other by Lawrence Ware. Final score Hornets 53, Frampton 5.