MOUNT House 1st XV entertained visitors from Buckinghamshire for their first home match of the season. Caldicott have an enviable record in prep school rugby and proved to be tough opposition.

Mount House opened the scoring after five minutes when good lineout ball was moved quickly for centre Tom Painter to split the Caldicott defence for the first try.

Caldicott quickly evened the scores before a penalty by Tom Painter gave the Devon side the lead again.

Ominous signs were developing in the forward battle and Caldicott began to dominate the loose ball. Forced onto the back foot the Mount House defences were breached twice just before the interval to give the visitors a 15-8 half-time lead.

Two early tries for the Home Counties outfit suggested a heavy defeat for Mount House, but the home side dug deep to respond with two excellent tries by Tom Painter, from his own 22, and flanker Doug Love with a surging run from the halfway line.

The match lost a little of its edge as both sides fielded a number of replacements, but at the final whistle Caldicott were winners by 34-20.

This year Mount House has a young 1st XV with any number of players available again next year.

They face a sharp learning curve, but players such as Rory Oxenham, Bruce Fulton and Finlay Maclaren are already showing themselves well capable at this level.

The more mature players are setting an excellent example and three of them, Tom Painter, Henry Manning and Doug Love, all enjoyed fine matches.

The XV's next two matches are both away, against Blundell's and St. Peter's, Lympstone.

l Mount House 1st XV started term early with a three-day training camp which included a day with Rob Masters, the regional RFU schools' liaison officer.

He put the boys and school coaching staff through their paces, with staff involved in refereeing and coaching sessions.

The term's rugby began with a trip to the north of England for the Sedbergh Prep Schools' Tournament in Cumbria.

In the group matches Mount House lost 5-26 to an excellent St Olave's XV from York before recording the season's first successes with wins over the Red House, Cleveland (21-0), Sedbergh Junior School (22-0) and St. Hugh's, Oxford (10-0).

These results won the XV a place in the semi-final. St Mary's Hall from Blackburn provided stiff opposition and at the end the scores were tied 5-5. Sudden death saw St Mary's through with a try soon after the restart.

The combination of experience and youthful exuberance proved a mixture of great potential for Mount House, one that should see this year's 1st XV develop into a competent side.

The pack played well throughout with Doug Love and Richard Dawson in good form while captain and centre Tom Painter was the side's top try-scorer.