1st XV defeat Stamford College Old Boys 96-7

Talk of Bourne accepting second place in Midlands South-East 4 look somewhat premature after the weekend's results. Bourne put local rivals Stamford College Old Boys to the sword with a 96 - 7 drubbing and league-leaders St Neots lost to Brackley leaving Bourne just two points behind in the league with everything to play for in their final game of the season when they visit Thorney in a fortnight.

Despite missing several regular starters, including himself, player-coach Dave Maudsley was confident prior to the game: "Stamford have been unlucky this year with some injuries to key players and some unfortunate results as a consequence. They gave us a tough game at their place and missing as many players as we are might suggest we'd be weaker but I don't see that as the case. When you consider the likes of Dan Smith and Matt Holden came off the bench last week to get joint Man of the Match against top of the table I think their opportunity to get a full game is nothing more than indication of our strength in depth.”

With Maudsley away and Captain Tom Dixon and a number of the other lads in Sri Lanka with Bourne Cricket Club, Bourne fielded a very different side to recent weeks. But there was certainly no indication of the side being weaker as they rattled up the points during an afternoon of free-flowing rugby. From the kick-off Bourne's game-plan was clear and they played at a tempo Stamford simply couldn't cope with, using an effective off-loading game and picking angles and gaps that were left by a Stamford defence clearly in disarray.

Pick of the performances were wing George Venables and back row Adam Binns both crossing the line to secure hat-tricks. But tries were in abundance on an afternoon where both the forwards and backs were able to enjoy a level of freedom not normally seen in games of this nature. Also dotting down on the day were prop Chris Greenwood and backrowers Andrew Brown and Dan Smith, alongside centre Matt Holden and fly half Drew Castle in his last game.

Replacement winger Dan Cheek crossed on his debut and his counterpart Josh Lynch also got two. Lynch looked destined to match Venables and Binns with three tries but picked up an injury to his knee with just under ten minutes left in the game. Already on 96 points Bourne were set to get into triple figures but stand-in skipper Sam Harby agreed that the apparent seriousness of Lynch's injury meant the seventy-minute mark was in fact a good time to bring the game to an end.

Despite scoring 96 points Bourne were disappointed to have conceded a try towards the end of the first half. Back row Brown said: "It was a great game in a number of ways but we're disappointed to have conceded. Having said that, in a game where we had much of the possession and spent so long attacking, one blip in defence is perhaps understandable.”

Vice-captain for the day, scrum half Sam Evison, had a busy afternoon and was given Man of the Match by the visitors. He said: "We played so quickly and looked to keep the ball alive with off-loads that the game was quite a bit more frantic than normal. As scrum half I try to follow the ball and today that meant covering a lot of ground!" Evison scored a personal tally of 26 points converting thirteen of the fourteen tries. "I'm disappointed to have missed one but really pleased the lads gave me so many other opportunities. 26 points from a game is fantastic but I can only do that if the team puts in a performance first."

Maudsley arrived at Milking Nook Drove just hours after the game had finished and was understandably delighted. "I'm chuffed to bits with the result. It's nice to beat local rivals but actually I take little pleasure from putting that sort of scoreline on Stamford - they're a good bunch of lads who've had a tough year; they should ignore the result and take credit for the way in which they stuck at the game.” Maudsley added, "the two things for me that make this such a pleasing result is the way in which we bounced back from two very tough results and the fact that certain guys have had the sort of opportunity they deserve and in doing so they've shown talk of us having strength in depth is completely justified."

Bourne: Mambey, Appleby, Greenwood, Cooke, Harby, Smith, Binns, Brown, Evison, Castle, Venables, Charlton, Holden, Lynch, Lagdon, Knight, Tito-Xipu, Williams, Short, Cheek.