Barton Hill continue to impress with easy victory over Yatton

LEADERS Barton Hill warmed up for Saturday's big home clash with Western Counties North promotion rivals Hornets by making it seven in a row with a 27-7 victory at bottom side Yatton.

Barts were significantly taller, heavier and more experienced up front and boasted an array of attacking options in the form of long-striding full-back Dominic Grey, winger Ross Baker and the route-one work of burly centre Ben Payne.

But the visitors were never able to cut loose despite dominating possession and territory thanks to Yatton's tremendous defence and committed tackling, typified by the non-stop endeavours of the breakaway trio of Ben Bowyer, Bill Osborne and Gareth Walters.

Flanker Sam Steer, back in charge of Barts until Joe Sansum returns from injury, said: "Yatton are a bit of a bogey side for us, we've lost here the last two years and knew they would make things difficult for us.

Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk

myprint-247

View details

Print voucher

Our heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.

Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk

Contact: 01858 468192

Valid until: Wednesday, May 22 2013

"What's pleasing is that although we're missing some key players with long-term injuries we've got a good squad coming together and are doing a decent job."

Barts know, though, that they will have to step things up a gear or two for the visit of Hornets. The visitors' line-out work was scruffy, while they were guilty of attacking too laterally at times and could also have been more ruthless close to the line.

Yatton, who fell behind to an Ollie Nowell penalty, took the lead with a try in the tenth minute, centre Blake Taylor-Menzies hacking on a dropped pass to score, skipper Chris Edwards converting.

But Grey's break put away winger Harry Nowell for Barts' first try, older brother Ollie converting to restore the visitors' lead.

And Ollie Nowell then glided through a rare gap in the Yatton defence to put a converted try under the posts on a plate for Steer as his side turned around 17-7 ahead.

Barts sewed up the game with a killer try from the impressive Grey, who had the pace to round several would-be tacklers on an arcing run that started on the halfway line.

The full-back was also in the right place to polish off a scything Baker break as the try bonus was secured a minute from the end of regulation time.

While Barts marched on, Yatton's band of brave youngsters are already preparing for another relegation battle. Ian John said: "If we graft like that then we'll have a chance. There have been big improvements since the start of the season and a lot of young lads have come into the side, but we know that we have to start creating more chances."

Hornets clinched a scrappy 23-16 home win against Chosen Hill thanks to tries from Joe Gadd, James Leatherby and player-coach Alec Chase, with Jermaine Jones booting two penalties and a conversion.

Second-placed North Bristol, meanwhile, secured their sixth successive win with Richard Mortimer at the heart of a 22-15 home defeat of Cirencester.

The hooker claimed a hat-trick of tries from controlled catch-and-drive moves, and for good measure also hit his line-out targets with all 17 of his throws. North's other score came from Dan Snow with Josh Davies landing one conversion.

Second-half tries from Mark Ralph and Rich Sheppard helped Bristol Harlequins rally from trailing 14-13 at the break for a 27-22 win at Burnham-on-Sea.

Chris Page converted both while there were also scores from Scott Manning and Mike Corston with Ross Hickery slotting a penalty as Quins secured a morale-boosting second win of the campaign and moved four points clear of the bottom three.

Old Bristolians went down 24-20 away at Matson after falling 19-0 down at the turnaround.