Halton Hornets u14s...30

St Helens Crusaders u14s 6

FOLLOWING last week's demolition of West Bank Bears in the NWC Cup, Hornets started the defence of their championship with a hard-fought win over an aggressive Crusaders side.

Hornets started brightly enough with Jamie Durbin sending Loftus plunging over for an unconverted try.

But Hornets were stung when Crusaders winger got away for a fine try which was converted to leave Hornets trailing 6-4.

The lead was regained when fine centre play from Ryan Clark put his winger Darren Burgess in at the corner for a try which was superbly converted by Ste Rowlands.

The game was becoming a stop-start affair mainly due to an inexperienced referee.

Hornets' superb defence was denying Crusaders and there was only one team who were going to score.

After a disallowed try by Sean Loftus, from the resulting scrum, Liam McGovern dummied his way over for a smart try to finish the break at 14-6.

Early in the second-half, Hornets had a period when they were on the back foot due to a string of penalties conceded and also it has to be said, due to some careless handling mistakes, which put themselves under a lot of pressure.

However Hornets weathered the storm and relieved the pressure when after a spell on attack Ste Rowlands forced his way over for a try converted by Liam McGovern to open up a 20-6 lead.

To their credit, Hornets refused to be drawn in by Crusaders niggling tactics, and concentrated on playing rugby.

David Prescott, a recent convert from RU, followed up his try-scoring debut at West Bank with another fine individual try using his power and pace to touchdown close enough for Liam McGovern to add the extras.

In the last minute McGovern scythed through from halfway to out-pace the cover for a superb try, but blotted his copybook by missing the conversion.

Not a vintage performance but a 30-6 win will send out the message that these boys intend hanging on to their title.

Portico Panthers u9s 18

Halton Hornets u9s 34

THIS was not the best performance from the Hornets side this season and Portico both attacked and defended well for the first 20 minutes.

Tries were scored by David Dourley (3), Craig Gallimore, Chris Headen and David Jones.

Five out of the six goals were converted.

Mom went to Alex Jeffrey with some powerful running.

Top tackler went to David Jones and the most improved player award was shared by John Hetherington and Chris Headen.

Halton Hornets u8s 16

Portico Panthers u8s 32

A DISAPPOINTING game for Hornets who just didn't seem to get going against this stronger, bigger team.

Try scorers were Jake Fraser (2), Danny Nelson and a conversion, and conversions to Fraser's tries by Gareth O'Brien and Adam Prendergast.

Newcomer Mathew Wagg played well with some good runs by Callum Connolly, Gareth O'Brien, Darren Clark, Dominic Smith.

Defenders were Richard Bamber, Dave Ellison, Warren Hamlett, Bradley Jones, Ryan Davies, Lee Holland and Chris Heyes.

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