Newmarket 33 - 10 Saffron Walden

With four tries in the match one could be forgiven for thinking that this was entirely the Dan Bristow show. In fact, despite the excellence of the second row's performance, it was founded on  all round team play that was only spoilt by the high number of penalties conceded.

Although the initial kick off did not carry 10 metres Newmarket quickly had Saffron Walden pinned near their own line thanks to some slick running and passing between the backs. Stealing the ball  from a Walden lineout Bristow almost touched down, only to lose the ball over the line. However, the ball was quickly re-gathered by Newmarket from loose play and this time there was no stopping him.

Failing to gather the ball from the drop out, Newmarket found themselves on the back foot but strong defence allowed fly half, Joe Stafford, and inside half, Nathan Buckle, to make the first of a number of surging runs that cleared the danger. The two wings ,Tom Locke and Iain Moffat combined well to take the home side into Walden territory. The decision by scrum half, Lewis Heap, to take a quick tap penalty looked to have been the wrong option as he ran into a wall of defenders but, again, from the resulting scrum Bristow proved unstoppable.

Newmarket indiscipline in front of their own posts gave Walden the opportunity to reduce the arrears almost immediately. Two penalties in quick succession left them disorganised and unable to prevent a short range try by the inside half which was not converted.

End to end play meant that the home side were again within touching distance of the opposition line. Bristow could have scored himself but unselfishly passed to Gwilym Davies who gathered the low ball only to see it knocked from his hands by last-ditch defence when within inches of touching down.

Newmarket ended the half defending a series of tap penalties as they repeatedly failed to retreat ten metres. They gave up half the length of the pitch before, once again, the forwards disrupted Walden ball to give Stafford the opportunity to kick to touch and end the first half.

Early exchanges in the second half were all one way. Penalties from constant infringements by the Newmarket forwards joining the ruck from the side were tapped by Walden who made steady progress towards the line. However, just when it looked as if they were getting the upper hand, that man Bristow stepped in again and picked the ball up on his own 22 to outpace the defence and score under the posts.

Despite Newmarket going down to 14 men with a quarter of the match remaining. as Locke was forced to leave the field with illness, Bristow's fourth try followed very quickly as good running by Moffat and Stafford got Newmarket to within a few metres of the line to give him his shortest range chance of the day. Stafford converted all four tries.

However, the home side continued to make life difficult for themselves and a further series of penalties gave the Walden forwards a chance to pick and drive from a lineout for their second try.

There was just time for the Newmarket forwards to regain the ball from the kick off and this time it was Jack Watson who showed a blistering turn of speed to leave the Walden players trailing in his wake and complete the scoring.

Stafford received the man of the match award in recognition of the way in which he controlled the game. Special mentions also go to recent recruits Ashley Reid and Tom Wills for their all round contributions to the team's play.