East Leake take honours in local derby by 45 – 25

Keyworth 2s scored 5 tries to gain a bonus point but were outscored by a visitor’s team that contained a number of recruits from Nottingham University’s Sutton Bonnington campus. The Black & Amber game plan was to try and keep it tight and give their ageing pack short distances to travel against their younger opponents, although, to be far, they too had their fair smattering of veterans within their ranks.

Try- scorers for Keyworth were James Muston with a fine solo effort down the left flank, Will Parnham with two, Jason Holland with a trademark jink through a gap and a run to the line untouched and one that we’ll credit to Mark King as he was in possession when the ref awarded it. Sadly none were converted, including two from in front of the posts!

Superiority at the set piece, usually a factor in Keyworth’s favour was sadly lacking with only one lineout success in the first half. When the ball went wide, Leake always looked dangerous but good defence from Keyworth stemmed many attacks. The breakdown area was constantly messy and both sides got away with a lot more than they should have.

Cracking effort by captain Keith Scott to get a squad of 20 odd players (and they don’t come much more odd than this bunch!) to turn out for the 2nd XV and there’s some real promise coming through in the shape of Callum Humphrey, playing on the wing and putting in some good cover defence and running strongly. In the same vein we saw the welcome return of Matthew Ellis who slotted in well at both wing and full-back.

The return of Batcho, Daz and Meebo reminded many of times past as did the sight of Will driving through tackles and making big hits in return. Zander did well at full-back but could do with developing a kicking side to his game. Tsangy, as ever, gave it everything as had Rob Severn in the smallest room earlier but he responded to the call and made sure that the scrums could be competitive. Thanks also to Mark Scott who also starred in the front row. Other returnees were Mark Hall and Lee Broadhead, post-nuptials and postman, Mike Symons who kindly guested in the front-row. Youngsters Liam Harrison and Doug Martin continue to improve, which is good to see.

Some things that don’t improve, however are the kicking abilities of Kingy, Jason and Starry, muppets all, whether from hand, kick-offs or conversions! It was possibly a tad unfair when it was remarked that best thing Zander brings to the game is his fiancée, Fran, who took some great photos ………………but sadly no Keyworth action shots!! Fran also failed to capture the shot of the day, the one of Tony Mee paying his match tax. The last time this was recorded, Noah had had just commenced building his Ark! There was also a huge sigh of relief when for a moment it was thought that one of our players had died but apparently the phrase ‘the late John Scott’ only refers to his appalling time-keeping! Similarly with Alex Tsang, the term, ‘last in, first out’ should only be used in industrial relations and not the use of the changing facilities before and after the game!

Another tough Pennant battle faces the 2s next week as they travel to Woodhouse Giants but they’ll always be in with a shout when they play such an enthusiastic manner.