Ely Tigers II 7 Shelford IV 34 ELY S second XV welcomed Shelford, their conquerors of last week s league game for a friendly fixture this week. The Ely team was much changed with a very young inexperienced backline who had to play with one man down as El

Ely Tigers II 7 Shelford IV 34

ELY'S second XV welcomed Shelford, their conquerors of last week's league game for a friendly fixture this week. The Ely team was much changed with a very young inexperienced backline who had to play with one man down as Ely started with only 14 players. Sean Humble took over the

captaincy.

The Tigers dominated the first 20 minutes, rather like last week, and a series of forward drives produced a try, scored by Will Watts and converted by Matt Daybell.

Shelford fought back with two tries, each coming from a quick breakaway.

After 20 minutes, Ely were restored to 15 players before Jimmy Gilborne had to leave with a suspected broken nose and then soon after, Ely also lost LLoyd Palmer, who bravely came back on after recovering for 20 minutes. Despite these odds Ely were only down 12-7 at half-time.

The second-half followed a similar pattern and Shelford penetrated the 14-man Ely defence and took a commanding 17-7 lead.

An exhausted Ely side conceded 17 points in the final 10 minutes and they could not

deal with the overlap.

Skipper Humble was full of praise for his debilitated side.

He said: "The young backline played very well and everyone hung in, even when down to 13 players. It was an all round team team effort within which Will Watts had an excellant and very effective game.