Wellingborough lead the way after big away win

On a weekend when rugby union continued following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, all clubs paid tribute with players wearing black armbands while also observing a minute’s silence before their matches.

And when their game started, Wellingborough made no mistake as their impressive opening to the new campaign continued.

Kieran Checkley scored their first try, which was converted by Joel Richardson and that was followed by further scores from Daniel Sims, William Farrar and Alex Bean while Richardson added two more conversions.

Checkley and Farrar both doubled their tallies after the break while Matthew Watts also scored twice in the second half.

Wellingborough’s other try was scored by Harry Bryan and, with Richardson adding the extras to four of the five tries in the second period, it wrapped up a big win for the early leaders.

Kettering picked up their first win of the Regional Two East Midlands season with a 22-5 success at Leighton Buzzard.

Skipper Shane Ling led the way with a brace of tries with Cade Greenwood and Tom Porter also crossing the whitewash while Joe Daniel added one conversion to get the Blues up and running.

It proved to be a good weekend all-round for Kettering as the seconds beat Leicester Vipers 12-5 in their Leicestershire Merit Table game at Waverley Road and the third team started their season with a 41-12 success at Northampton BBOB.

And, things were capped by the Colts who beat Towcestrains 15-14 with Dan Hood and James Aldwinckle scoring tries.

Oundle were unable to follow up their opening-day success in Regional One Midlands as they went down 27-10 at Burton.

Oundle opened the scoring in the first half with Vernon Horne going over for his third try of the season.

But the hosts hit back to lead 17-5 and, with Oundle reduced to 13 men at one stage in the second period, they trailed 27-5 before Jack Sharpley crashed over for what proved to be only a consolation.

It’s been a fine start to the Counties Two Midlands East (South) season for Stewarts & Lloyds.

They made it two wins from as many matches with a low-scoring 12-5 victory at Northampton Mens Own.

S&L fell behind to an unconverted try in the second half but hit back to lead when Liam Feely went over and Devon Reilly added the extras.

And the away-day success was wrapped up thanks to a Carl Lofty try.

Rushden & Higham, meanwhile, were playing their first game of the season and were beaten 39-22 at Melton Mowbray, despite the game having been in the balance at 17-17 at half-time.

This weekend’s fixtures

Regional One Midlands: Oundle v Derby.

Regional Two East Midlands: Kettering v Lutterworth.

Counties One Midlands East (South): Wellingborough v Bugbrooke.

Counties Two Midlands East (South): Rushden & Higham v Northampton BBOB, Stewarts & Lloyds v Daventry.