Barnes punish wayward Raiders

By MICHAEL WHITFIELD

Barnes………….. 34

Worthing……….. 21

BARNES made a confident start to the new campaign with a solid victory over Worthing Raiders.

Worthing were out of the traps fast, with winger Curtis Barnes cutting through on the angle for a fourth-minute try.

That woke up the home side and fly-half Louis Ellis scored a penalty after nine minutes.

Barnes grew in confidence and scored tries in the 19th and 24th minutes, with Ellis converting both. The first try was by number eight Courtney Raymond on debut, who powered over, and the second try came from a rampaging run by Cam Ruddock, who off-loaded to skipper Josh Davies.

Worthing let a couple of chances go begging through sloppy penalties.

From a scrappy lineout in the Raiders’ 22, Barnes second-row Len Ashcroft-Leigh charged down the defensive box kick and gathered the ball to score. Ellis slotted the conversion.

Worthing committed a third basic error of the half in the Barnes 22. They incurred the referee’s wrath by over-appealing and were marched back 10 metres. From the penalty, Barnes hoofed it down field, Worthing fumbled and the ball was snaffled by Barnes for debutant Will Lewin to touch down. Ellis goaled for a 31-7 half-time lead.

Ellis slotted a penalty to extend the lead and Worthing suffered a yellow card. Worthing fly- -half Matt McLean scored a try that he converted, and he also goaled a score by Jerome Rudder, but there was no way back.