Sport down the years

SPORT has always been covered in the NWN down the years. We look at the unforgettable moments from 10 years ago

March 3 2011

Grand Slam at Newbury

ENGLAND’S under-20s will be going for their own ‘Grand Slam’ when they face Scotland in their penultimate Six Nations match at Newbury on March 11.

England remain unbeaten after their opening three games, a 26-20 success in Wales, a 74-3 battering of Italy at Bath and last weekend’s 19-8 win over France at Worcester.

And they will take on a Scotland side that is battling to avoid the wooden spoon after their 49-5 beating in France, 33-3 home defeat by Wales and losing 15-0 to Ireland last week. England’s most recent win was secured by Northampton winger

Ben Foden’s try and 14 points from Leicester fly-half George Ford, one of several graduates of the England under-18 side that beat France 33-16 at Monks Lane last February. England will be naming their squad next week, although former Park House pupil Jonathan Joseph is unlikely to feature having only last week returned to the London Irish squad following a broken hand while another early squad member, Saracens’ Owen Farrell, has been a fixture in the Premiership club’s side.

Tickets on the night will be £12 for adults, £8 concessions and free for under 10s.

Berkshire under-20s ran out comfortable 50-0 winners over Buckinghamshire in their second match of this season’s South West Group A section of the National under-20 Championship at Tadley on Sunday.

It’s a two-month season

IT’S the start of a new two-month season for Hungerford Town, according to manager Bobby Wilkinson.

His side finally got into the fifth and final Zamaretto League Division One South and West play-off spot after Tuesday night’s 3-2 home win over Abingdon United, but now the hard work starts, according to Wilkinson. “We’ve got in there,” he said, “but now we’ve got to stay there. It’s two month season for us now. We’ve taken 13 points out of 15 to get there, but in the month before that we took four out of 21.

“It can turn around as quickly as that. Now we have got to keep winning games to stay there, but it won’t be easy. We have still to play Totton twice, Sholing and Frome and it can all change so quickly.

“But if you said at the start of the season we would be where we are now, I would have been happy with that.”

Hungerford showed both sides of their nature on Tuesday night, swamping the visitors in an impressive first period, but often holding on in the second.

“We could have had six or seven in the first half,” said Wilkinson. “And we were hanging on in the second. But the players worked hard and got the winner. It was certainly entertaining.”

Wilkinson has also been boosted by his injured forces returning to strengthen his squad going into such a key stage of the campaign. Defenders Simon Herbert and Matt Day figured on Tuesday and striker Adam Wallace is also fit for Saturday’s trip to Yate Town and Tuesday night’s visit of Gosport Borough.