Belper 2nds travelled to West Bridgford with a team that had a good mix of youth and experience, and having arrived quite early, took the opportunity to have a team meeting and bonding session in the local hostelry. Following last weeks debacle with the "giggling" Mick Elove playing in the centres, it was decided that, so long as he took his medication, he could return to the back row.

Despite the the bright sunshine there was a strong wind blowing down the middle of the pitch and having won the toss, Belper elected to kick with the wind and the slope with the aim of building a score that could be defended in the second half. Belper immediately pegged the home team back in their half with the forwards winning ball with ease. However, the backs were struggling to cope with the wind, as time and time again the ball went to ground or got knocked on. Not to worry though, because the forwards kept winning it back! Eventually Captain Holmezy managed to send out a pass that was catchable and with Andy Laven ghosting into the line to create the extra man, the ball finally reached Dib O'file who scored under the posts. From the kick off, Belper immediately ran the ball back into the opposition half, with Daz Griffiths and Tom Mathews making good ground before being stopped in the 22m. Despite winning good ball, Belper struggled to capitalize until Captain Holmezy decided to throw a dummy or two, followed by a sidestep and with the help of a missed tackle, managed to score, again under the posts.

Belper started to relax and from the kick off, managed to knock on , which gave WB a scrum in Belper's 22m. A series of back row moves, which up until now Belper had coped with, brought the home team to 5m out, and it was again a "pick and drive" that led to the home side scoring. This made Belper pick their game up, and once again, they set off on a march towards WB 22m. Despite surging runs from Tony Laven, Phil Holmes and Pete Rose, the home side held firm, obviously bouyed by the score and the wind and slope that they would have advantage of in the second half. As the first half drew to a close, Belper won the ball and passed it down the line for Luke Ruggy to make good ground before presenting the ball to Blounty, who trundled forward. Again the ball was won and spun out to Danny SL on the opposite wing who set off towards the line. As he was tackled 5m out, Leon Griffiths was on hand to recover the ball and score. The first half ended with Belper leading 21 - 5.

If WB felt confident now that they had the wind and the slope, they had not reckoned on Mick Eloves half time team talk. Gone were the "more points than them" speech and "do we want it" speech. What we got was truly inspirational and although nobody can remember what he actually said, Belper went out for the second half ready to meet the challenge. It didn't go WB way in the second half at all with Belper taking every opportunity to drive them back into thier own half. On the few occasions WB did break free they were met with solid defence from the backs and un-canny ball winning skills from Tom Mathews.

Charlie Watson was causing all sorts of trouble with his pace and darting breaks, and it was him that scored after taking a sublime pass from Captain Holmezy. From the kick off, the ball was returned deep into the Belper 22m and fielded by Luke Ruggy who returned a kick. The WB full back retrieved the ball and set off on a mazy run, and with Belper adopting the Chuckle Brothers methods of defence, ie to me, to you, to me, to you!!!,,,, he managed to waltz a whole 75m to score under the posts with no one laying a hand on him. With the score a little too close, Belper stepped up their game and spent the rest of the match in the opposition half with Captain Holmezy scoring 2 more tries ad Charlie adding another one to his tally.

The game became so one sided with Belper dominating that it seemed inevitable that more points would come, and so they should have with Tony Laven crossing the line only to be unable to roll over, instead doing a good impression of a tortoise that had been placed upside down on its back. I'm sure that if no-one had rolled him over he would still be there today!

With Daz Griffiths kicking 5 out of 6 conversions the game ended with a 40-19 win for Belper. All in all, it was a good day for Belper 2's who even had a travelling supporter in Dibber's latest girlfriend, although its not clear how much of the game she managed to watch as she seemed more interested in counting woodlice for her school nature project. Lets hope she gets full marks!! Belper were also ably supported by the Matthews although it did turn out later that they were only after the Gin.........just say no!

After the match Holmezy welshed on his responsibilities by failing to buy a jug to celebrate his hat-trick of tries as he "only had a fiver on him" Oh how well that fiver has served him. A jug had better appear soon or the consequences may be very dire indeed...........watch this space