Spalding Rugby Club beat Bourne Rugby Club in a second team fixture

With no league fixtures on Saturday, Spalding's second team took centre stage as they travelled to Bourne where they recorded a 12-70 success.

The Elephants fielded a full squad with three substitutes for this local derby while Bourne had similar numbers.

The opening minutes saw Spalding dominate with lock Tom Moxon making a forceful carry to set the tone in the opening minute.

Shortly afterwards, hooker Elliot Humphrey made a break and, with a good pass to the supporting Moxon, the first try was on the scoreboard with fly half Charlie Beecham converting.

Bourne's strength was in the forwards and initially they had Spalding's scrum under pressure giving scrum half Chris Crane a few problems with his pass out to the backs.

But it was going to be the Spalding backs who really shone.

Forward Ash Anker won a turnover and suddenly in broken play Beecham showed his pace and trickery for his opening try and, with his own conversion kick, Spalding were 14 points up with 12 minutes on the clock.

Within two minutes, Beecham again made a line break to score under the posts following a good pass by scrum half Crane.

Bourne responded with a try out wide with Spalding’s defence having gone on holiday.

With the wind in their favour helping good kicking by Beecham, Spalding mounted sustained pressure and prop Aaron Brundle crossed the try line.

In the lead up to half-time, centre Callum Lewis scored two outstanding tries with great pace and strength both from over 50 metres out, cutting Bourne’s backs defence to shreds.

His second try was greatly assisted by Miguel Da Silva whose strength and determination set the galloping Lewis away for a 5-30 interval lead.

The opening quarter of an hour of the second half saw a fightback by Bourne with sustained pressure with their forwards to the fore and finally a deserved second converted try was scored.

But Spalding responded with their forwards using pick and go to gain territory and, with the try line in sight, there was no stopping Ash Anker from going over with Beecham converting.

Within a couple of minutes, lock forward Brandon Joselyn seized on a dropped ball, made a break and offloaded to Lewis to break tackles to go over for his hat-trick.

A good kick into the corner by Beecham saw Bourne's lineout ball go loose and Brundle gratefully went over from five metres out for his second try of the afternoon.

Bourne responded by kicking for territory but Beecham fielded the ball and broke down the wing to score in the corner.

Spalding's forwards now had Bourne on the back foot with their pick and goes but good ruck defence held their line which was finally broken by lock Joselyn grabbing his second try.

During the second half, all three Spalding subs took their places in the team, meaning Da Silva moved out to centre and his strength and good pass to Ollie Sorrell saw the final try of the afternoon.

During the game, lock Macaulay Crane made good ground with his carries and captain Connor Broome led from the front throughout the game assisted by the experience of scrim half Chris Crane while Tom Moxon provided good ball from his excellent line-out work.

Spalding: Connor Broome, Elliot Humphreys, Aaron Brundle, Brandon Joselyn, Tom Moxon, Ash Anker, Miguel Da Silva, Macaulay Crane, Chris Crane, Charlie Beecham, Callum Lewis, Ollie Sorrell, Tom Parker, Justin Bramley, Finlay Roy. Subs Harry Cranke, Chris Wilson, Mark Batterbee.

The club's two in-form first teams meet on Saturday at Centenary Park for a 2.15pm kick-off in Counties 1 Midlands East (South).