On a damp wet muggy day Belper welcomed East Retford to the Strutts ground for their first meeting for a few seasons, Retford had been in midlands 4 last season and Belper had come up from midlands 6 this season so neither team knew a lot about each other.

Retford started the stronger of the 2 using size and weight advantage to drive deep into Belper's half using their strong 8 to knock holes in Belper's defence, Belper battled hard with Ed Watson and Inns making powerful tackles to knock the players backwards, and Holmes, Blount and Adams did well driving over in support in rucks and mauls. Belper worked hard in defence and the hard work paid off with them winning the ball in their own half and driving up field, with the backs opening up gaps in the visitor's defence. Gray was tackled into touch metres from the line, Belper won the line with Adams leaping highest to knock the ball back to Naylor who spun the ball wide to Blackwell, he popped the ball out to Tennick who crashed into contact and with the ruck formed Retford were penalised for handling on the floor and the penalty was given 30 yards in front of the posts, Blount stepped up and slotted 3-0

Minutes later Blount went from hero to villain when he was penalised himself for handling on the floor, the Referee gave the penalty and the Retford 10 slotted from the angle 30 yards out.
Then following the kick off with 15 minutes of the half left Belper drove up field following good running from Emslie and Booth jinking through gaps and getting tackled short and with the ball being taken to ground hands on, on the floor were penalised 10 meters out, and as Naylor took the quick penalty about to score a Retford defender not 10 metres interfered with play and the penalty try was awarded, Blount slotted to give Belper a 10-3 lead.

With 5 minutes left of the half, having been warned Blount was accused of handling the ball on the ground and was penalised and yellow carded, Belper faced 10 minutes down to 14 men but instead of struggling started to boss the game taking the ball back to Retford with pace and power and were unlucky when Smith crashed through 2 tackles and spun to put the ball down in the corner only to lose control of the ball as he put it down.

Half time saw coaches Barden and Boyd shouting the odds explaining Belper were trying to overdo things without sticking to a game plan.

Belper kicked off and pressured the visitors deep into their half, but failed to score, and to add they lost Blackwell for 10 minutes to another yellow card, putting them back down to 14 for a further 10 minutes, Belper battled on with Booth stepping in at 10 and Belper started to move the ball well, pressing when the ball was moved wide and it was Man of the match Charlie Watson who, on his league debut scored following quick hands wide from Booth, Watson outpaced two defenders stepped inside the full back then ran in to score, Blount slotted the conversion 17-3

Retford didn't lie down, they came at Belper hard and Belper were on their own line for a good 5 minute spell with Inns and Ed Watson smashing players back with some massive last ditch tackles and young Charlie Watson followed suit with a massive last ditch tackle on his opposite number.

Belper eventually managed to weather the storm and won a penalty which sent them deep into the visitors half, the line was won and the ball was spread wide where Holmes popped up to run a try in the corner 22-3

Belper then finished the game with Watson scoring again the ball was spun wide and he did the rest outpacing players and scoring well under the posts, Blount slotted the conversion and then added a penalty giving Belper a well fought victory 32-3