Belper were keen to avenge a 20-14 defeat at Ripley earlier this season, and on the back of a couple of good performances in their last two games were feeling confident.

Belper elected to play with the strong wind at their backs in the first half but started sluggishly despite the incoherent ramblings of a Mick Elove team talk ringing in their ears. Early exchanges were inconclusive until the ball was spun out to the Rhinos centre who danced his way through Belper's back line to open the scoring. Ripley slotted the conversion to make it 7-0
This woke Belper up a little and they started to apply a bit of pressure, and found that Ripley time and again coughed the ball up while in possession. Excellent open play by Tom Matthews saw him winning the ball over and over. Following a bit of holding on when tackled, Belper were awarded a penalty which "Daz the boot " duly converted.

Belper started to play a little now but time and again were penalised by the referee who seemed to be applying his own laws to the game. But he occasionally penalised Ripley too, and Belper were awarded a penalty just inside the Ripley half. Daz decided to have a go and hit the ball straight towards the middle of the posts. Unfortunately it dropped just short.

Belper were now running the ball at every opportunity and the pressure eventually told, with giggling Mick Elove bulldozing his way across the line to score. Daz duly converted. Ripley added a penalty before half time to make it level at 10-10 when the half time whistle blew.

Belper faced into the wind for the second half and knew they'd have to tighten up their defence if they were to win the game. Ripley used the wind to good effect, pegging Belper back in their 22 for long periods but they couldn't convert their chances and Belper kept clearing their lines. Some more strange refereeing decisions saw a lot of penalties awarded Ripley's way, but they kept going for the corners instead of knocking them over the posts.

Belper had a Disney moment when DSL was given a hospital pass deep in his own 22, he looked up and saw all 15 Rhinos players bearing down on him ( a bit like in Bedknobs and Broomsticks) So Danny lifted up his skirts and high tailed it across the pitch and managed to get boot to ball and clear the Belper line. Never has a player looked more relieved in his life
Following a break out of their own half Belper set up a ruck and Andy Laven started a jinking run, followed closely (and even overtaken at one point) by younger brother Tony. Andy selfishly hung on to the ball and touched down to give Belper the lead.

Belper continued to shut Ripley out and never looked like losing this hard fought game, but in truth never really found the form they'd enjoyed in the last couple of games. The only form Belper showed was in the bar afterwards when Sandra Matthews drank everyone under the table despite professing that she never touched the stuff.

Belper 2nds are away at Rolls Royce 2nds next Saturday and hopefully they 'll get their mojo back