Colts bow out in last four

Bedford deny Newbury youngsters a cup final spot: Blues first team concedes 11 tries at home

NEWBURY COLTS could not pull off a comparative ‘giant-killing' as they went down 34-12 at home to Bedford on Sunday and out of the National Colts Cup in the semi-finals.

The result also denied Berkshire an all-Royal county final at Northampton next month after Redingensians defeated Moseley in their tie further east.

Newbury were made to pay for a costly opening 15 minutes that saw them concede three tries and a yellow card. Bedford's fires drive brought a penalty try after three minutes and they had tight head Jack Caunt sin-binned after Bedford prop Will Allard had driven over for the second score.

Lightning winger Josh Bassett was put away to make it 17-0 and Newbury had a lot of ground to make up to salvage the tie.

They did their best however, and got themselves onto the scoreboard five minutes before the interval; when Alex Miller and skipper Toby Thorne sealed the move that ended with Jamie Monger touching down, Aaron Waters converting.

But Bedford kept their noses in front with Elliot Bake dropping a goal just before the break and scrum half Ali Price breaking through within 90 seconds of the re-start.

When Bassett swept through for his second, Bedford looked set to storm clear with half-an-hour still to go, but Newbury, whose gritty defensive work rarely let them down in close, had the next word when Monger touched down his second after locks Ben West and Dyer had charged forward.

Bedford were able to close it out, but Newbury's run to the last four at least served to show that there is life in the young ones yet.

p BLUES' first team shipped another 11 tries when going down 74-19 at home to Worthing in National League Two South on Saturday.

They were behind within a minute to a try from Worthing number eight Rob Smith and he and Alex Nielsen added further scores with Matt McLean's boot making it 24-0 after only 15 minutes.

But Will Stutchbury's try was Worthing's only addition before the interval, while Blues scored either side of the break through winger Myles Roberts-Bailey and scrum half Dominic Payne before Worthing struck five times in 10 minutes and seven times in all through Nielsen, McLean, Shane Costigan, Joe Govett and Matt Redmayne, while Roberts-Bailey raced away to score his second to give Blues a third score.