DORCHESTER 61

COMBE DOWN 3

DORCHESTER treated their loyal fans to a 10-try thrashing of mid-table Counties One Tribute Southern South rivals Combe Down at Surcouf Park.

Coinciding with their second vice presidents’ lunch of the season it gave the very large crowd a fine afternoon.

It was clear from the early exchanges that there was going to be a clash of styles, the visitors relying on their forwards while Dorchester were keen to use their speedy back division. Jamie Morgan opened the scoring with a simple penalty before the visitors replied for 3-3.

As the game entered the second quarter, two tries in as many minutes set Dorchester on their way.

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Firstly, winger Matt Fry showed pace and power cutting in from the wing to touch down under the posts. Then, direct from the restart, Dorchester released flying winger Flynn Drummond to outpace the defence from close to his own 25m line, leaving a number of the visitors’ players in his wake and their fly-half flat footed with a superb sidestep. Jamie Morgan converted both tries.

Combe Down continued to struggle to handle the Dorchester backs and further tries from Kieran Fry and Jack Adams, plus a Morgan conversion, gave the hosts a clear 26-point lead at the break, along with the bonus point already in the bag.

The second half was very one-sided with Combe Down hardly putting together an attack to trouble the hosts.

Drummond ran in his second try before Henry Quinney put skipper Steve Tucker over for try number six. The visitors’ increasingly desperate attempts to defend led to a yellow card for their hooker Josh Peck.

Further tries from prop Tom Louch and Cohen Emery, intercepting and sprinting 60 yards to the line took the points total to 49. Matt Fry again showed his quality with a second try before Combe Down’s frustrations finally boiled over into brawl.

After things had settled, the referee yellow-carded both captains and red-carded the visitors’ flanker. As the clock ran down there was just time for Matt Fry to complete his hat-trick before the referee decided to end the game before there were any further problems.

Dorchester remain eighth in the table, two points off Combe, before travelling to leaders North Dorset on Saturday week.

Dorchester A also had a memorable win against Sherborne Seconds in their Counties Three Tribute Dorset & Wilts fixture, coming out 73-8 winners with a young side keen to make their mark.

After a rebuilding season, the side are starting to click and could well move up another place in the table with the final two games going their way.

On Friday, Dorchester’s fabled Gladiators took on Weymouth at Surcouf Park and came out 25-17 victors in a good-natured development game for both clubs, featuring both young and old.