Chard upped their game in the second half against Hornets to avoid what looked like a drubbing.

Hornets raced into a 12-0 lead in the first five minutes and by half-time were 29-3 up.

Chard, depleted before they started, had lost influential threequarter Ben Stead to injury by then and the picture looked gloomy.

Neil Douglas kicked a penalty before the break to get Chard on the board.

If the first half had been dominated by the Hornets threequarters, the second was dominated by the Chard pack who gave the hosts a torrid time.

In their desperation to slow down the Chard pack, Hornets lost a player to the bin and the seven remaining forwards just could not cope with the situation.

Chard skipper Mark Parsons drove over for the first try and within minutes lock ‘Stan’ Mortensen had crossed for try number two, which was converted by Douglas.

Hornet broke out to score, but Chard hit back almost immediately when Parsons again showed his ability with a second try.

Chard have an attractive home game with Newton Abbot this Saturday (2pm).

They will be without No.8 Rob Burnell, who will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

Chard 2nd XV were denied a third straight win when they went down 19-0 to Wellington in Somerset One.

With four players called up to play for the 1st XV, not to mention injury and availability issues, Chard faced Wellington with ten team changes from the team that took the field last weekend.

They were grateful for the contributions made by several veterans, notably Stuart Gold, Lee Brun , Martin Carnell amongst others.

Chard 2nd XV are away at Midsomer Norton this Saturday.

Chard Colts lost 26-19 to Clevedon, who crossed for a try under the posts with the last play of the game to cap a remarkable second- half.

Chard dominated the first half and a large crowd were treated to a good game.

Jacob Whitefield opened the scoring for Chard and further tries were added by Brian Wingate and Warren Lewis. George Whitlock added two conversions.

Although Clevedon did cross the Chard line once before the break, Chard had a comfortable 19-5 lead at half-time.

In the second half Clevedon injected a lot of pace in to their game and two converted tries got the scores level.

In a ding-dong final quarter Clevedon got over for last minute try to seal the win.