Hornets 27 – 19 Lymm
1st Team Match Report | Saturday November 15 2025
Lymm stung by Hornets
A poor 15-minute spell by Lymm immediately after halftime shifted the balance of this match well and truly in favour of Lymm’s west country hosts. Although Lymm did then manage to wrest back the initiative, they left themselves too much to do and were, ultimately, dealt a cruel blow at the death which denied them any league points from the fixture.
Weston-super-Mare based Hornets, are not a complete unknown quantity to Lymm as the two teams did meet in a pre-season encounter in 2024, but that was on neutral territory rather than at the Hornets’ aptly named home of “The Nest” where, like Lymm, the RFU has installed one of its Rugby365 Artificial Grass Pitches. Given this, the Lymm bus left Crouchley Lane early on Saturday morning safe in the knowledge that, despite the best efforts of Storm Claudia, the match would go ahead on an excellent playing surface.
The Lymm squad showed 4 changes from the previous week with Ben Thompson, Rob Makin and Dan Hunter all unavailable and skipper Nathan Beesley a late withdrawal due to illness, being replaced by James Yates, Jack Lightbown, Joe Senior and Tom Shard. At the start of the match whilst Lymm mere sitting 5 points and 2 places above their hosts there was little to choose between the two teams – so another close encounter was on the cards.
Lymm kicked off, immediately disrupting their opponents’ possession and were soon camped on Hornets’ 22, setting the scene for the first quarter when Lymm were very much on the ascendency enjoying the majority of the field position and possession. An easy three points were turned down in favour of an attacking line out, but the threat was snuffed out; then Cal Morris spotting a chink in the Hornets’ armour managed to cross the line only to be held up and unable to ground the ball. However, on the occasions when Hornets did secure possession, they did look threatening with one long kick-chase in particular fully testing a scrambling Lymm defense. Then on 23 minutes, the deadlock was broken. With play just inside Hornets’ territory, Lymm turned over a Hornets’ ruck allowing Rhys Lilly to take the ball towards Hornets’ 22. The ball was quickly recycled and moved quicky across the backline to Ste Pilkington who linked with Oli Higginson, who quickly offloaded to Paddy Jennings, allowing the Lymm winger to show his pace and run in to score from 30m. Jack Reynolds’ conversion had Lymm with their noses in front 0-7.
Lymm’s defence had been solid thus far with their quick line speed, pressurising Hornets into regular hurried errors. However, on the half-hour mark, Hornets’ flyhalf Luke McMullen was able to avoid the first line of Lymm defence and then step his way through the resultant gap to run in an excellent individual try from 40m which Charlie Carter, who was making his 300th appearance for Hornets, was able to convert. 7-7 after 30 minutes.
5 minutes later, and Lymm were awarded a penalty 5m inside their own half and 10m from the right-hand touchline. Whilst everyone was expecting a kick to touch, Morris tapped and started an excellent Lymm attack which weaved its way across the pitch and deep into Hornets’ territory, before Alfie Simpson was able to link with Jennings and Joe Heaton to feed right-winger Senior, who had sufficient space to round the last defender and score an excellent, unconverted try. 7-12 after 35 minutes.
Whilst this was the final scoring act of the half, in the last few minutes Lymm’s penalty count from high tackles brough a warning from the referee Mr Hurdley, that the next offender would be receiving a yellow card.
Half Time: Hornets 7 – 12 Lymm
At halftime, Lymm would undoubtedly have been pleased with their defensive performance, excellent line-out and solid scrum.
The half started brightly enough for Lymm, continuing good work at the line out and looking purposeful in attack, but just being frustrated by the odd handling error. Then on 44 minutes, from a seemingly innocuous position deep in his own half, Carter set on a run beating a couple of Lymm defenders before feeding his centre Connor Vickery, who showed his pace to run in a try from halfway, duly converted by Carter to put Hornets’ noses in front 14-12.
3 minutes later and a Lymm handling error handed possession to Hornets on halfway. Hornets Number 8 Corey Baker then took the ball at pace, finding a gap in the Lymm first line of defence. As he entered the Lymm 22, and with several defenders closing in, he put a clever grubber kick to the right where second row Joachim Hullah showed great dexterity to scoop up the bouncing ball and score 10m in from the right-hand touch for an unconverted try. 19-12 after 47 minutes.
Things then went from bad to worse for Lymm as Lightbown was yellow carded for a high tackle and, as a consequence, the Lymm scrum and line-out which had gone so well began misfiring. On 55 minutes, Hornets took full advantage of this when Hullah scored his second from close range, Carter failing with the extras. 24-12.
Having conceded 17 points in 11 minutes, Lymm needed to get themselves back into the contest. This they did albeit their enterprise and hard work met with stiff resistance from Hornets who were now brimming with confidence. A couple of promising rolling mauls just failed to deliver the much needed score and then with about 5 minutes left, Lymm were held up over the line for the second time in the match. Finally on 77 minutes, Lymm got further reward for their efforts. Jennings made good yards down the left flank into Hornets’ 22; Tom Manaton then took the ball down the blindside before linking with Yates who used his long arms to reach out and score close to the left-hand touch. Shard’s excellent conversion, brought Lymm to within 5 points with 2 minutes left on the clock. 24-19.
Lymm secured the restart but, in their frantic efforts to move the ball, became isolated and were penalised. The penalty kick from 22m out and 10m in from the right-hand touch looked easy enough but was in the same spot as Carter had earlier failed with a conversion attempt. His kick looked for all money to be missing to the right but at the last moment hooked round to the left, passing just inside the uprights to take Hornets’ lead to 8 points, agonisingly denying Lymm a losing bonus point in the process.
Full Time: Hornets 27 – 19 Lymm
After the match, Director of Rugby, Adam Fletcher, commented:
“I thought we were excellent for the first 40 having fixed issues from the previous week. Unfortunately, a couple of individual errors in the first 15 minutes of the second half gave opportunities to Hornets which they capitalised on clinically.”
“We then managed to take back the initiative but, ultimately, came up just short.”
Team: Ben Lilley (29); James Pitcher* (99); Dalitso Ngoma (7); James Yates* (143); Dylan Hodkinson (5); Rhys Lilly* (80); Josh Hadland* (67); Oli Higginson* (287); Cal Morris (72); Alfie Simpson* (47); Paddy Jennings* (87); Jack Reynolds (42); Ste Pilkington* (90); Joe Senior* (36); Joe Heaton* (5).
Bench: Jack Lightbown (5); Sam Wicks (9); Max Ure* (5); Tom Manaton (33); Tom Shard* (154).
( ) = number of Lymm First XV League appearances
* Former Lymm Academy/M&J player
Referee: Thomas Hurdley
Lymm’s next fixture is on Saturday 22nd November when they take on Taunton Titans at Crouchley Lane, KO 2:30.
Match Report: Andy Leach
Man of the Match
