TENBY U16s v CRYMYCH

First game for the Tenby Under 16s was played under floodlights at Heywood Lane against Crymych on Wednesday, October 4. The squad, well prepared by coaches Chris Williams and Joe Bowles, were eager for a game.

Tenby took a little time to settle and the first score went to Crymych centre D. Twose and conversion by E. Williams.

The two teams were evenly matched and the game flowed, with good defensive tackles from both sides saving certain tries.

Chris promised every member of the 23 squad a run-out and changes were made throughout the game.

A dropped pass in midfield allowed Crymych centre, R. Jones, to pick up and score their second try near the posts. The try was again converted by E. Williams.

Tenby pack dominated the lineouts, giving the backs plenty of clean ball. Pressure on the Crymych line should have resulted in points, but some good clearance kicks kept Crymych ahead at half-time.

Tenby played much better in the second half, playing more as a team, but failed to cross the line. The whole squad played so well, it would be unfair to single out any player. From this first outing we obviously have the makings of a very good side.

Tenby squad: Rhys Bromby, Ben Dumphy, Jamie Adams, Sam Smith, Peter O'Hagan, Andrew John, Kye Davies, Steven Ive, Nick Rowe, Jason Keats, Aled Griffiths (capt.), Antony Absalom, Jay French, Matthew Davies, Alex Jenkins, Ricky Reese Thomas, Geoff Martin, Joe Duffy, Chris Iddon, Chris John, Harley Zeblewski, Berian Jones, Nick Davies.

TENBY U16s v KILLARNEY

The Tenby Under 16s side played a very strong touring side from Killarney on Friday evening. Their coach, Ronnie Hakin, who played for Bath and Ireland, accompanied the Irish side.

Both sides were evenly matched and the game was hard, but played in good spirit. Both sides threatened the line on several occasions, but it was only the Tenby side that managed to turn pressure into points with a try by Geoff Martin. Steve Ive landed the conversion. to make the final score Tenby 7 Killarney 0.

Following the match, the Tenby squad accompanied the Irish side to Fecci's chip shop where a sausage and chips supper was provided.

After a few words from Ronnie, the team captain, Aled Griffiths, was presented with a plaque for the clubhouse. Killarney club ties were also presented.

The Irish lads left for Cardiff on Saturday morning to watch the international.

Tenby squad: Rhys Bromby, Ben Dumphy, Jamie Adams, Sam Smith, Peter O'Hagan, Andrew John, Kye Davies, Steven Ive, Nick Rowe, Aled Griffiths(capt.), Antony Absalom, Jay French, Matthew Davies, Alex Jenkins, Geoff Martin, Tom James, Chris Iddon, Chris John, Harley Zeblewski, Berian Jones, Nick Davies,

Note: Training sessions will continue at the Clicketts on Wednesday evenings at 6 pm.

TENBY U14s A 10 pts

KILLARNEY 17

Tenby Swifts Under 14s looked impressive against the larger Irish team.

The boys were smaller in stature, but pulled out all the stops and put on an excellent display.

The Seasiders opened the scoring when Nick Drewitt ploughed through the Irish defence to score a great try with fantastic support play from the forwards.

The boys were going in hard, making match saving tackles, and showed great tenacity against the larger boys.

Tenby looked polished and started to put their set moves into practice, rucking, mauling and driving the opposition off the ball.

Eventually, the strength of the opposition showed and two tries were scored in quick succession to put the score at 5-10 to the visitors at half-time.

In the second-half, some fresh legs came on for Tenby and again they looked dangerous.

However, Killarney then scored a quick third try and converted it to bring the score to 5-17.

Tenby really needed to find a bit extra, which they did, and started to fight back.

Lloyd Wilson made a run, dodging the opposition to score the second.

Tenby's comeback was too late, however, and the game ended at 10-17 to the visitors.

It was a very pleasing performance by Tenby and an enjoyable game to watch, encouraged by our very own band of very vocal local cheer leaders.

TENBY U14s B 35 pts

KILLARNEY 5

Tenby Under 14s Bs also put up an impressive performance, winning easily against Killarney's B side.

This was a 10-a-side game played across the pitch.

The tries were scored by ???

Again, it was a very enjoyable game to watch.

Tenby squad for both matches was: Duncan Meacher, Lawrence Davies, Johnathon Walker, Jo Smith, Adam Ball, Robbie Tuttle, James Dick, James Davies, Nick Drewitt, Daniel Colley, Sam Foster, Rhys Thomas, Steve Handicott, Lloyd Wilson, Ben Field-Thomas, Barry John, Dave Saunders, Alex Morris, Johnathon Lewis, Ollie Morgan, Paul Woods, Arran Sutton.

TENBY U12s 12 WHITLAND U12s 22

The 12s' knew they would be up against a strong side, having met them already this season at the Neyland tournament. Whitland coach Paul Kirk has put together one of Pembrokeshire's top teams at this level with talent in all departments.

The game started with Tenby making all the ground and calling all the shots. Half-backs Sam Baker and Guto Griffiths made good ground, ensuring the ball was spread out wide for wingers Simon Stanford and Ryan Lewis.

First blood went to the home side. After good ball was consolidated by the pack, a loose ball was pounced on by Matthew Watkins, David Denton and Joe Lewis, who were first to the scene and drove Whitland backwards; the free ball was picked up by Baker, who fed lock Luke Dedman who in turn broke three tackles and ran half the pitch to touch down under the posts. Guto Griffiths converted comfortably.

Whitland fought back and would have scored soon after if it had not been for some excellent covering tackles from Jamie Robins at fullback and Liam Watkins at lock.

They were unable to do anything about the first Whitland try, however, as classy centre Alex Pickersgill stormed through for five points. The try went unconverted.

Tenby were much improved from their first outing of the season and after some hard training sessions are slowly starting to reap the rewards.

Scott Helmich has switched to inside centre and showed good hands and is very strong in the tackle, while Ben Griffiths outside him is proving to be a good centre and had a good game. Jamie Robins, Simon Stanford and Ryan Lewis are electric with ball in hand. Robins made more tackles on Sunday than the whole of the national side the day before.

The Tenby pack is improving with every match. Marshalled by Rob Colley, they are slowly getting to grips with the basics and took the game to Whitland. Henry Boot made a fine impression at number eight and worked well with Baker at scrum-half.

It was not to be Tenby's day as Whitland applied pressure, releasing Pickersgill at every opportunity, he picked up a couple more tries.

Tenby are not a team to give up as they showed against Haverfordwest and guts and determination saw them fight back as they won a penalty on the visitors' 10-metre line. Colley tapped quickly and set off on a blistering run to secure a well deserved five points. Griffiths just missed the conversion from a difficult angle.

All in all, this was a good performance from Tenby, but there is still a lot of hard work to do in training and I'm sure this team will be impressing very soon.

Tenby squad: Sam Baker, Scott Helmich, Henry Boot, Joe Lewis, Guto Griffiths, Rob Colley, Liam Watkins, David Denton, Mathew Watkins, Tom Griffiths, Luke Dedman, Antonio Fecci, Ryan Lewis, Ben Griffiths, Jamie Robins, Simon Stanford, Sam Christopher.

TENBY SWIFTS U11s 50 pts

MILFORD HAVEN 10

The performance of the Under 11s in a fogbound Milford haven last Sunday lifted the gloom with another big win by 50 points to 10.

With the grass ankle deep and conditions slippery, one might have thought that we were in for a tight low scoring game. Not a bit of it. From the outset the Swifts set the tone with a first minute try from exciting wing James Criddle, the first of three he was to score.

The forwards won good ball and lively half-backs Kiefer Thomson and Jamie Williams immediately got their three-quarter line moving with a fine passing movement for the wing to score in the corner.

The backs can therefore see that the benefit of quick unselfish passing will be tries on the scoreboard and should continue with this expansive style of play.

Elusive centre Toby Smith was brought into the attack with regularity and was rewarded with a fine individual try. Matthew Davies, as always, was a pillar of strength at fullback and timed his entry into the line with perfection in attack to capitalise with yet another try.

Jamie Williams was another to cross the line and James Criddle scored his second just before half-time.

Milford had some heavyweight forwards who sought to batter their way through the Tenby defence. The lighter Tenby forwards had other ideas and tore into their opponents like tigers, not allowing them to gain any momentum.

Patrick Roberts, Oliver Goldwait and Joseff Morris were always to the fore in both snuffing out Milford attacks, regaining possession and taking the game to their opponents. Yannick Parker is proving one of the most combative hookers in this level of rugby and Jack Baker has developed into a mobile prop with good handling skills. This pack is an extremely mobile, athletic unit, always hungry for action, and the forward dominance was shown with Patrick Roberts storming over for a hat-trick of tries, a rarity for a forward.

Once the opposition had been subdued, subs were introduced in the form of James Canton, Robert Jones and Thomas Griffin. James Canton immediately showed his class with a classic wing's try, racing over in the corner. The scoring was rounded off by James Criddle crossing for his third.

Yet another outstanding display before the vociferous home support seemed to have the effect of lifting the fog - it certainly lifted the spirits of the visiting supporters. Well done Under 11s.

TENBY U10s v WHITLAND

Sunday saw Tenby entertain Whitland at Heywood Lane. The squad was slightly short in numbers, but made up for this in superb skill and determination which provided the large crowd with a very entertaining game of rugby football.

Andrew Cooke, captain for the day, played his socks off! This young man has such talent in the flanker division he could hold his own at international level. His strength in the ruck and maul provided Tenby with scores of turnover ball.

This was utilised well by some fierce running from Alex Thomas and Lewis Davies. These two boys played their best game for the Seasiders, with massive runs down the middle of the park which played havoc with the Whitland defence.

Daniel Thomas also took every opportunity to run with the ball in hand and had several jinking runs which impressed the crowds.

The tackling from both sides kept the game even for the best part of the first half. Whitland were unable to pass the likes of 'Hit Man Hearns' Lewis Hodgson, who yet again gelled in defence to keep the visitors out. This young tackling machine was backed up by Michael Robins, who, as scrum-half for the day, showed great strength in defence with tree-felling tackles on lads much bigger than himself.

However, it was Whitland who eventually broke the dead lock close to half-time with two excellent tries.

At the interval, Tenby took on board some well earned water and returned to the park full of passion. Driving runs from the fearless Denny Paxton gained Tenby territorial advantage which was capitalised upon by Lewis Davies who scored an impressive forwards try.

Tom Baker then stood up to take the conversion which he slotted over with a good strong strike (look out Neil Jenkins) to bring the game to 7-10.

Tenby then went up a gear to try and take the lead, but excellent defensive work kept out the likes of Lewis Canton who had made a superb individual run to be bundled into touch just short of the line.

Whitland then returned the honours with wave after wave of pressure which kept Tenby in their own 22 for the rest of the game.

Sam Ormond showed he was no wet lettuce in defence with some powerful play in this department, backed up by the whole of the Tenby squad.

However, the visitors eventually completed the game with four tries to Tenby's one. Final score 7-22.

PS. Thanks to Gethin, the whistle of authority!

MILFORD U9s 0

TENBY U9s 5

This was Tenby United Under 9s' third match of the season and the hardy band of supporters, at a wind swept Milford, could definitely see an improvement in each game.

Curtis Hurlow scored Tenby's first try, but it was all thanks to Philip Horsley. It was Horsley's try-saving tackle on the Tenby line that stopped a certain try for Milford and the quick-thinking Tenby player picked up the loose ball and raced down the field. He, himself, was tackled short of the Milford line, but managed to get his pass away to the ever-supporting Hurlow to dive over.

Daniel Robins crashed over for the second try, just before half-time, after good work by Huw Thomas, Ryan O'Neill and Luke James.

There were also good powerful runs from Henri Pritchard, Joe Dennis and the lively Louis 'The Bear' Fecci.

In the second half, a strong run from the halfway line, which outstripped the Milford defence, brought a try and a smile to Cai Evans and an even bigger smile from his father, Mike.

Curtis Hurlow got Tenby's fourth try and his second of the match from a similar long range effort to that of Evans.

Good tackling from Sam Turton, Dylan Griffin and Jimmy James helped prevent Milford from scoring, including their big forward who took all three of them to bring him down at one stage.

The final try went to Philip Horsley after some neat inter-passing with Louis, Jimmy and Luke.

Mike and his coaching team were over the moon with this performance, which included a two-hour warm up session. Players are reminded that training this week is on Thursday from 6 to 7 pm in preparation for the home game against Narberth on Sunday.

Tenby squad: P. Horsley, H. Pritchard, J. Dennis, C. Evans, C. Hurlow, D. Robins, H. Thomas, L. James, L. Fecci, R.O'Neill, S. Turton, D. Griffin, J. James.

This Sunday, the Swifts will be home to Narberth Juniors. Will all players of Under 9, 10s, 11s and 16s meet at Heywood Lane at 10 am.