Bourne Rugby Club and Spalding Rugby Club draw their Counties 1 Midlands East (South) match

The honours finished even in a compelling and competitive derby duel between Spalding and Bourne on Saturday.

The neighbours shared the spoils after a 19-19 draw in the Counties 1 Midlands East (South) clash at Milking Nook Drove.

It was a second successive away draw for Spalding who had returned with two points from their 12-12 stalemate with Vipers the previous weekend.

Spalding had gone into the contest looking to repeat last season's success over their rivals when they claimed an away victory while Bourne returned the compliment by winning at Centenary Park.

With a few absentees in the Spalding pack, Jack Patrick and Wilson Crowson become flankers for the day, instead of playing in the backs, while Jordan Templer again played at hooker in what was a different looking set of forwards for the visitors.

In front of a large crowd of supporters, Bourne struck first as, within two minutes of kick off, they benefited from a penalty being awarded and their fly half Liam Shields slotted over the kick for an early three point lead.

As expected competition was fierce at the breakdown but Spalding were edging territory with scrum half Jim Wraith providing good ball for fly half Willis Ingleby to set his backs running.

However, they then suffered an injury setback with Templer being replaced by Fraser Canham after only 12 minutes and early on Spalding's lineout was again misfiring.

The Elephants shrugged this off to score the opening try as Patrick won a decisive turnover and, with Crowson, George Douglas and Fergus McKerracher in support, a series of driving pick and goes established field possession just short of the try line and Sam Cowell went over in the corner.

Templer was back on after 30 minutes , replacing Zokas Raimondas, as Bourne were pushing to get back into the game and within minutes they took the lead as scrum half Joe Atkinson snipped over for a try.

Spalding were threatening with both wingers Ben Shields and Gav Sharman having good runs but defences were solid.

However, the speed, together with a side step, saw Sam Christie open up the Bourne defence five metres out from the try line and he touched down behind the posts for a simple conversion by Conall Mason and a four-point lead had swung back to Spalding.

As expected Bourne came back and a knock on by Spalding, which would have been a scrum but was turned into a kickable penalty as a result of back chat, saw the ball sailing between the posts on half-time and there was just the one point dividing the teams.

Spalding's cause was not helped early in the second half with Mason receiving a yellow card for dangerous neck contact.

But, despite being one man down, Spalding remained in control with Ingleby pulling a penalty kick wide and then minutes later it looked like Christie's chase of a kick-ahead by Sharman had resulted in a successful touchdown only for it to be overruled by the referee.

However, it was not too long before Patrick caught Bourne’s defence napping from a quickly taken penalty with his quick thinking and dive over the try line that brought an easy conversion and Spalding's lead was now up to eight points.

With half an hour remaining, Bourne started to take more control of the game with their forwards becoming more dominant.

After working a position in front of Spalding’s posts, a penalty kick pulled back the deficit to five points.

Ten minutes later, Bourne’s right wing Jon Levett - with his pace and strength - shredded Spalding's defence to score wide on the left wing and, with no conversion, the scores were level at 19-19 with 15 minutes remaining.

Raimondas came back on for Crowson which helped stabilised the pack as Bourne's power had taken control of the scrum and Spalding were now encamped within their 22 and defending for their lives.

Spalding won a turnover to relieve pressure but Bourne just came straight back and, with time nearly up, a home penalty kick, which would have won the game, sailed wide.

Finally the full time whistle blew and the honours were shared in a local derby contest played with full commitment by both teams.

Spalding: Sam Cowell, Jordan Templer, Miguel Da Silva, George Douglas, Zokas Raimondas, Wilson Crowson, Jack Patrick, Fergus McKerracher, Jim Wraith, Willis Ingleby, Ben Shields, Conall Mason, Sam Christie, Gav Sharman, Ryan Firth. Subs: Callum Lewis, Fraser Canham, Ollie Machin.

Bourne: Matthew Lines, Jonathan Levett, Adam McHugh, Sam Evison, Isa Mohammed, Liam Shields, Joe Atkinson, Sam Harby, Sam Thornburn, Harry Thornburn, Jason Rushton, Harry Bower, Ben Taylor, Bobby Pearce, Luca Stroffolino. Subs: Jack Berry, Jacob Fisher, Jack Balaam.

Spalding have their first home league game on Saturday when they entertain Bugbrooke at Centenary Park while Bourne travel to face Vipers.