Ely Tigers 1st XV 24 Ipwich YM 14 WITHOUT leading scorer Dan Gardner, who broke his ankle in two places during a training session, Ely came from behind to beat a useful Ipswich side. Stacy Mould (back injury) and Paul Finon (knee) were also missing from t

Ely Tigers 1st XV 24 Ipwich YM 14

WITHOUT leading scorer Dan Gardner, who broke his ankle in two places during a training session, Ely came from behind to beat a useful Ipswich side.

Stacy Mould (back injury) and Paul Finon (knee) were also missing from the Ely line-up, but Jon Hunt made his debut for the Tigers.

Two converted tries left the home side 14-0 in arrears, but Lloyd Palmer won clean ball at a line-out and Tom Jackson crashed over for a try that Jamie Russell converted.

Tigers upped the tempo in the second half and Karl Hayler went through for a try which Russell converted again to level the scores.

Hayler again showed his appetite for points by capitalising on a rolling maul to grab his second try of the game, and Jackson wrapped up the points with his second try towards the finish.

"The guys did exactly what was asked of them today," said club captain Mark Mitzman afterwards. "The first half was a real wake-up call, but we stuck at it and worked hard not to led YM add any more points.

"It was a gutsy performance and we showed that we are capable of great things."

Ely II 26 Biggleswade II 15

ELY seconds travelled to Biggleswade on Saturday looking for their first win of the season, but after winning the toss were quickly pushed back in to their own 22. Biggleswade continued to pressurise Ely and after just five minutes, scored following a driving maul. The conversion was missed, but this early score seemed to shock Ely in to action and they pushed Biggleswade back from the restart.

After several phases of play James Dening broke from the back of a ruck and ran over to score under the posts, the try being converted by Matt Daybell to make the score 7-5.

Ely subsequently retained good possession and drove deep in to Biggleswade territory, producing tries from Joel Scott-Paul and Andy Hugo, the latter converted again by Daybell who also scored himself just before half time and then fired between the posts for a 26-5 lead.

The second half started with some unsure handling from Ely and set the tone for 40 minutes during which they rarely got in to the Biggleswade half.

The defence held firm with some fine tackling from the likes of Reece Hurst, Daybell, Scott Rowbotham and Hugo, and although Biggleswade scored after 20 minutes and again right at the end neither try was converted.

Ely Captain Matt Eldridge said: "It was a hot day and they were a big strong side but the forwards stuck to the task, never gave up and our backs really outpaced theirs and defended fantastically".

Alex Hart, Rowbotham and Tim Evans all made their second team debuts.