This Is Cheshire

HORNETS ROUND-UP

From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 5th Mar 1998.

Halton Hornets u14s 28

Bolton u14s 0

HORNETS played some impressive rugby and took an early lead with two tries from impressive prop-forward, Gareth Tudor. His first came after he used his strength to barge through a packed Bolton defence. His second came after good team play with a passing move involving 10 players who switched the ball from one side to the other for him to touchdown in the corner.

Hornets continued to dominate play and were rewarded with a third try from mom, Paul Argent, who also converted the goal to give Hornets a 14-0 lead at half-time.

The second-half continued in a similar pattern with Hornets' defence always in control. Centre, Michael Grimes continued his excellent form with two tries. His first came after he ran into a good off-load from Chris Plant. His second followed the restart when he ran onto the kick-off to collect the ball and ran 30 yards to score a fine individual try.

Paul Argent added a further try and Spencer kicked a goal to earn Hornets their 11th win of the season. There were also good performances from Barry Ferguson, Jonathon Ellison, James Davies and Paul O'Connor.

Halton Hornets u13s 44

St Helens Crusaders u13s 4

AFTER this emphatic win and still unbeaten with just four games remaining, Hornets are tantalisingly close to the championship.

Star of the show was skipper, Liam McGovern who switched from loose-forward to stand-off and he responded with his first hat-trick of tries for the team. A fine early 60 yard break from centre, Neil Davidson, led to prop, Sean Loftus, bursting over for McGovern to convert. McGovern then scored a superb solo try from halfway which was converted by Ste Rowlands and the writing was on the wall for Crusaders.

A superb pass from winger, Darren Burgess, sent alert scrum-half, Jamie Durbin, in at the corner. Crusaders had been unable to break out of their own half due to Hornets magnificent defence, and just before the break prop, Craig Bennett, stormed over for Ste Rowlands to make it 22-0 at the interval.

The second-half followed the same pattern as the first with McGovern scoring a repeat of his first try from halfway to quash any faint hopes of Crusaders comeback. Fine play saw centre, Ste Rowlands, cross and also convert his own try. Next to score was Mark Bevan who after a fine run stretched a telescopic arm out to just get the ball on the line for a further conversion from Rowlands. Shortly after, Crusaders got a deserved consolation try, but Hornets had the last word when McGovern completed his hat-trick with another superb solo try again converted by Rowlands to leave the final score at 44-4.

Halton Hornets u11s 34

Wigan St Cuthberts u11s 10

GOOD support play produces good tries and this was certainly the case as Hornets overcame St Cuthberts. Adam McCabe started in typical fashion with a long-range effort before Shaun McWhirter broke through and provided the pass for Mark Ogburn to run on to and touchdown for an excellent score. A quick-tap penalty saw Daniel Smith scatter the defence for his touchdown. Playing down the hill in the second-half but it was the visitors who came back into it with two quick scores. Mark Ogburn took a Paul Hunt pass to go over for his second and Adam McCabe scored two more to complete the Hornets scoring. Rob Shone kicked five excellent goals, but a lot of the ground work which provided the space for Hornets running came from John Headen, John Nanson and Shaun Dourley.

Halton Hornets u10s 28

Wigan St Cuthberts u10s 6

HORNETS won this game in the first-half with tries from Ostick, Wright and McDonnell, with Cookson converting. Cuthberts could not break the Hornets' defence with Riley and Bloomfield tackling well and Rowlands playing out of position at scrum-half had a good game. The second-half tries came from Hunt and Cookson with Cookson converting. Again Hornets had a bit of a relapse letting Cuthberts in for a try through dropping of tackles, but they finished the strong side.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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