Old Scouts kept their home league record in tact with a convincing 37-17 win against Vipers.
An early penalty from stand-off Adam Frost set the scoreboard ticking but the evenly-contested early exchanges saw Vipers equalise after 15 minutes.
Several charges for the line by the visitors pack were well defended by a resolute Scouts defence which prevented the visitors from crossing the line .
Frost missed two penalty opportunities but was then involved in a fluid Scouts movement that eventually resulted in a looped pass out to flanker Iain Simmons, who dived into the corner to put Scouts in front for the second time.
The home side began to take charge of the match from this point on. Although Vipers kicked a penalty after a bout of further pressure on the hosts’ line, Scouts secured the ball straight from the kick-off and skipper Russell Lynch scythed through to dot down for Frost to convert.
A wave of attacks followed but a few wayward passes failed to find their targets and the score remained 15-6 to Scouts at the break.
Within minutes of the restart the game was virtually over and a bonus point achieved.
A Frost penalty rebounded off the upright and, as the Vipers defence seemed to freeze, Tom Major was following up to secure the ball which was fed out for Mark Franklin to race over.
A second try followed almost immediately when Lynch sidestepped any attempt to tackle him and Frost added the extras.
Both kickers exchanged penalties and as the game entered the final quarter a combination of injuries and yellow cards resulted in the rest of the game becoming a non-event.
Vipers did score a consolation try with 10 minutes remaining when they exploited a one-man advantage to go over in the corner but Scouts had the last say when the visitors collapsed a scrum that was destined to score and the referee awarded a penalty try under the sticks, which Frost duly converted.
There were promising debuts by youngsters Glyn Roff and Liam Markey as Scouts continue to introduce players into their squad.
This Saturday, Scouts are in Intermediate Cup action at home to Earlsdon.
Brackley ease to victory over Thorney
Brackley put 66 points on the board for the second week running as they eased to a 66-3 win over Thorney in Midlands Four East (South).
Brackley coach Matt Titchener was encouraged by a performance containing several well-worked tries, stemming from set phases in the pack before the three-quarters were brought into play.
Left wing Rory Thomas stole the show with a haul of four tries.
Mens Own bounce back from drubbing
Mens Own bounced back from their Rushden & Higham horror show with a 15-9 victory at Old Newtonians.
After the previous week’s 108-0 defeat to Rushden, any sort of victory against the Newts was welcomed.
And they bounced back with a win, although in reality should have secured a bonus point and deprived Newts their point.
Own dominated all aspects of the game and scored three tries, all from skipper Craig Wilson.
Hat-trick joy for ONs trio
ONs ran in 13 tries as they overwhelmed Midlands One East bottom club Spalding 85-0.
Phil Beaumont, Jake Spencer and Matt Love each scored a hat-trick of tries to pile on the misery for struggling Spalding, who have lost their opening six league games of the season.
Also among the tries was Will Kingston, Lewis Hook and Kieron O’Connor. Alex Rose converted nine of the tries, while Love converted one.
Elsewhere, Jack White and Steve Gillespie scored two tries apiece as ONs’ A team beat Spalding IIs 42-0.
Mike Holliday and Phil Monkman also dotted down, while Gillespie added four conversions and Rob Andrew and Ally Wood one each.
Old Northamptonians’ B team beat Kettering IVs 12-5 thanks to tries from Grant Kearns and Rob Ellis, with Steve Evans adding a conversion.
Inexperienced Tows are well beaten by Paviors
A merciless Paviors side thrashed injury-riddled Towcestrians 40-7.
Tows’ mounting injuries are finally beginning to catch up with them as they failed to build on the previous weekend’s magnificent win over the league leaders.
The more experienced Paviors dominated early possession as they took the lead with two unanswered converted tries and they never looked back.
In the second half Tows had six of last year’s colts side on the field with first-team debuts for Gus Hopewell and Patch Griffiths, but inexperience showed and Paviors were deserved winners.
BBOB look set for a tough season
BBOB look set for a long hard season following a 24-19 defeat at Market Harborough.
In what is going to be a long, hard season for BB this was one game which should have been won, to use the old adage snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The BB dominated field position and possession especially in the first half, but remarkably went in 12-7 down at half-time.
BB needed to be more direct, and attacked down their right, spinning the ball for David Abraham to level the scores.
Harborough had looked dangerous in the backs all afternoon, but when a try came it was very soft. The Harborough 10 showed the ball and stepped between bb players to score and convert to make it 19-12.
In a brief spell of Harborough pressure they moved the ball for the winger to score a bonus-point try.
BB went back on the offensive using the scrum as a potent weapon with Kyle Dufty finally smashing over. James converted, securing a losing bonus point.
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