RUGBY: Westbury do Max proud (From Wiltshire Times)

RUGBY: Westbury do Max proud

3:01pm Thursday 1st November 2012 in Sport

WESTBURY honoured Max Bignall with a minute’s applause before their match with Blandford. Their former player, who died after suffering a heart attack last week, would have been proud of a 23-5 win that dragged the team clear of the danger zone.

Nigel Kershaw slotted two penalties in a tight first half to give Westbury a 6-0 interval lead that was the least their play had deserved.

Sensing the contest was there for the taking, Westbury cut loose in the second period and soon crossed the Blandford line, with Kershaw finishing a good piece of play by the backline to cross under the posts before adding the additional two points.

A few minutes later veteran Gareth Vaughan rolled back the years with a searing break up the middle of the park.

He offloaded to flanker Andrew Twinney who took the ball to ground. The ball was recycled quickly and moved wide to centre Aaron Collins-Thomas, who powered over the line to score Westbury’s second try.

In the 69th minute winger Greg Atkinson, standing in at fly half, found a gap in the defence and ghosted through to touch down. Kershaw converted to take the score to 23-0.

Westbury went searching for the bonus point try but were unable to find it, conceding a late score in the process.

Warminster crashed to a sixth successive defeat as they were soundly beaten 41-10 at Wimborne.

The youthful hosts cantered into an 8-0 lead Warminster then enjoyed a dominant 10-minute spell but Wimborne weathered the storm and countered with two more tries to secure a 20-0 lead.

Before half-time Warminster managed to get on the scoresheet through a Jason Sprangle penalty kick.

Wimborne scored another three tries in the second half but Sprangle did give the hosts a brief scare. Spotting a big blindside gap from a ruck 20 metres out, he showed a good turn of pace and a step to go in under the posts. Rob Johnson added the conversion with Sprangle suffering from cramp.