ALNWICK'S young guns found unbeaten Horden too much of a handful on Saturday as they slumped to their third defeat in a row.

Solid forward play gave the hosts a sound base for their big fast three-quarters, who constantly threatened the Alnwick defence.

A superb display from home kicker Andrew Turner, bagging 19 points, and a quartet of tries by Horden's summer signing Richard Foster, helped condemn Alnwick to their heaviest defeat of the season.

And it was the sparkling Foster, who had proved a handful in last week's encounter with Ponteland, who opened the scoring for the hosts.

Horden, who snatched top spot after this emphatic win, were quick on the attack and forced Alnwick back to concede a scrum inside their 22 area. A quick ball was spun out to Foster who went over for the first of his four tries.

But Alnwick responded brightly to the early setback and Joe Poole got the visitors off the mark with a penalty.

Alnwick's backs drove on but a low skidding pass from the half-backs went down. Horden won the scrum and moved the ball out to the wing and then back across to the other where Ian Cox battered his way over for an unconverted try.

The home side then began to dominate with Turner, Michael Thubron and Foster all bagging tries. Turner kept the pressure on by kicking three conversions and a penalty, taking the hosts into a 34-3 half-time lead.

Horden increased their lead early in the second half as Foster grabbed his hat-trick.

Then followed a rare mistake by the home side, and a loose pass was intercepted by Andrew Shell who raced through for a try at the posts. The resulting kick was duly converted by Joe Poole.

But that proved to be Alnwick's lot and league leaders Horden began to pile on even more pressure.

The Horden barrage paid off as Paul Priestley and Gavin Davidson scored the home side's seventh and eighth tries respectively before star of the show Foster touched down for his fourth of the afternoon.

And with just five minutes to go, super sub Chris Purvis, who replaced David Grant and moved to full-back, compounded Alnwick's away-day misery by scoring two tries, taking Horden's final tally to 74.

The 74-10 defeat saw Alnwick slip to eighth in the table, but they take a break from league action on Saturday as they face Wallsend away in the EDF Senior Vase, kick-off 3pm.

The man-of-the-match award, presented by Ken Hodgson of The Oaks Hotel, was awarded to Charlie Davies.

Team: C Kirtley, R Howlisten, J Frater, D Kennedy, A Shell, J Poole, Rob Ord, A Armstrong, G Hodgson, M Milburn, D Oliver, M Currie, S Archer, T Hopson, C Davies, H Sordy, R Neil, A Gaines.