Following their victory last week Belper 2nds found themselves scratching about for players right up to kick off, with the club fielding 3 teams this week, and a large number of people dropping out at short notice.

Belper were looking forward to this encounter with close rivals Melbourne, and Captain Holmes elected to play with the strong wind behind him in the first half.

Belper started strongly and really took the game to Melbourne with strong running and good support play from all of the team and scored the first try very early on, No-one is really sure who scored but we know it wasn't number's 1 - 7, or any of the backs. Maybe it will just remain a mystery but 5 points is always welcome.

In what was to set the pattern for the game Melbourne came straight back at Belper and following a lapse in concentration managed to level up the score with an opportunisic kick and chase try.

Belper rallied well and started to grind Melbourne down with Jon Holmes carving up their backs at will. Belper were rewarded when Holmes slinked through aout 5 tackles to score Belper's second, and wel deserved it was too. Belper were sill patting themselves on the back when Melbourne again caught them napping and equalised almost immediately.

The half time score was 12 - 12 and with the wind against them Belper knew they had to defend like demons in the second half

Belper kicked off and the forwards were all over the Melbourne defenders like a rash, nickin the all and releasing it to the backs for Holmes to score his second within a minute of kicking off. Griffiths slotted his third conversion of the day to make it 21 - 14

Melbourne came back again and scored when half the Belper team thought they'd heard the ref's whistle when it was in fact the whistle from the 3rd team game. In the confusion a Melbourne player slinked through to score again

21 - 19 it stayed for most of the half with both teams scrumaging well, and Belper making good ground only to be pegged back by a kick in the strong wing. Belper defended like demons when Melbourne pressed into their 22 and were eventually caught napping when a Melbourne player danced through to score an opportunistic try. The conversion was landed and Melbourne also converted a penalty at the death to see the match end in a flattering scoreline of 21 - 29.

Captain Holmes was very pleased with the performance with great tackling and support play throughout