Yarnbury travelled to a fired up Thornensians who were determined to remember the life of their recently departed scrum half with a winning performance on the field.

Following 2 minutes silence, applauded generously by the large crowd the game started with an initial Yarnbury attack repelled by the award of a relieving penalty to the home side.
One penalty was followed by another, this time giving Thorne a 3pts lead which soon became 10pts after the Yarnbury defence melted under pressure.

A flowing backs move seemed to have ended due to an early off the ball tackle by the Thorne centre, however full back Josh Bateson retrieved the loose ball and with the referee playing a good advantage sidestepped his way over in the left hand corner for a try superbly converted by Dan Pound.

Pounds next intervention ten minutes later was electric. A bouncing ball on half way was
causing both sets of forwards handling difficulties and when Pound saw his chance he accelerated onto a loose Thorne pass to streak 50 yards and convert his own try to give Yarnbury a 14pts to 10 pts lead.

This lead lasted barely 5 minutes, again
the Yarnbury defence seemed to be shopping at Mothercare buying too many dummies and Thorne went 3 pts ahead.

Almost immediately Pound responded with an excellent penalty into the wind to once again level the scores.

With first half injury time being played a magnificent move from half way by Thorne broke the Yarnbury line and seven offloads in the tackle resulted in a converted try which had the home crowd in rapture.

Half time Thornensians 24pts Yarnbury 17pts.
A response was needed, yet shortly after half time another expensive dummy sold and bought in a flash increased Thornes lead to
14pts.

The Yarnbury coaching staff responded with an immediate change from the bench bringing on the giant frame of impact sub James Falgate. However James’ impact resulted in an immediate Yellow card.

Rather than going on the back foot Yarnbury pushed Thorne into defence and after two blatant ball kills by the home backs number 8 Ben Robinson collected a Bateson chip over the top to score under the posts, Pound converting.
Falgates return, immediately after the score, started to have the desired effect and once again Thorne killed the ball. Tap penalty to Falgate. Result Thorne defenders scattered, try to Falgate. Pounds kick failed.

Thornensians 31pts Yarnbury 29pts.
From the kick off a kick and chase once again resulted in a Yarnbury penalty and with five minutes remaining Dan Pound unfortunately slipped when making connection with the ball .Last chance?.

A dubious penalty to Thorne who somehow still had fifteen players on the field relieved pressure and resulted in minutes of continuous pressure on the Yarnbury 22 , until turnover ball was shipped from Bateson to wing Tom Bowman who with a sharp turn of pace split the Thorne defensive line to break to the half way line before offloading to the supporting Josh Bell. Bell raced away drew the last man and left the supporting Tom Whitfield a walk in under the posts for pound to convert.

The referee allowed one more play Yarnbury
depositing Thornes kick off into touch.
Final score Thornensians 31pts Yarnbury 36pts.
Report by John Riley.