Stamford Rugby Club beat Bourne Rugby Club
Stamford recorded their sixth successive victory in Counties 1 Midlands East (South) after a derby win against Bourne on Saturday.
The purple, black and whites secured a 17-8 success for their eighth victory from nine league games so far this season.
The game was not a classic with both sides not performing at their best and it was early Stamford pressure that eventually paid off.
A line break by Ed Cox and an inter-passing move involving Heard, Kendall and Morley was finished off by Ben Chisholm for the first try.
The visitors were putting some phases of their own together but these were dealt with by good Stamford defence who then turned this into an attack involving Cox and Bentley but they were stopped short of the line.
Neither side was able to take control of the game with defence cancelling out attacks by both teams.
The messy style of play continued and some Bourne back-chat to the referee cost them 20 yards but they managed to get well into the Stamford half where they kicked a penalty through Sam Evison to make the score 5-3.
Another Town move then fell down with a knock-on which allowed Bourne to hit back with a try from Jack Berry which closed the first half at 5-8 in the visitors' favour.
The second half continued in the same manner as the first with a few injuries forcing the sides to make changes.
When Stamford were awarded a penalty, Ian Downer kicked long to the corner and a good line-out drive allowed the ball to be moved out for Mike Kendall to score a try which Bentley converted for a 12-8 lead.
The game settled again into a pattern where neither side took control but it was Stamford who used the line out drive again which resulted in a try for prop Joe Ireland that moved the score to 17-8.
Bourne were looking for openings but the Stamford defence was its usual mean self and, despite losing a player to the sin bin for 10 minutes, the home side held the advantage for the remainder of the match.
Stamford will take comfort that they could produce a win from a scruffy performance which puts them in third place in the league.
They travel to Bugbrooke on Saturday where they will hope to avenge the surprise defeat there last season.
Bourne will look to bounce back as they host Stockwood Park on Saturday.
