The conditions were against both sides which were looking to play open and flowing rugby. The wind made kicking a lottery and line out throws more difficult than normal. The team to make the better of the elements would stand the greater chance of victory.

It was a special day for Ilkeston as the home side fielded four sets of brothers, the Falls, Taylors, Mahoneys and Newtons and all played their part in this first versus fourth encounter. Ashbourne themselves had three brothers in their line up.

Ilkeston were the top team and started as such with the early pressure but the decision to run the penalty in front of the posts unsuccessfully let Ashbourne of the hook.

The Elks kept the pressure on Ashbourne and with a line out steal by Stoker led to a ruck. Scrum half Chris Kemsley picked up the ball and dummied, side stepped and sprinted his

way to the line for the first score of the match. Jono Falls stepped up and judged the wind perfectly for the two points.

The Elks front row of Gordon Pringle, Jason Falls and Craig Charlton were causing their opposite numbers problems in the early exchanges.

Unfortunately the Elks allowed the visitors to stay in the game courtesy of losing too much ball in contact and not holding on to passes.

Ilkeston had some good passages of play with full back Falls linking up with centre Alan Cook, and no.8 Steve Quinn but the Ashbourne defence was sound.

The Ashbourne defence was constantly infringing and lucky not to see players binned for killing the ball and coming in from the side.

Ilkeston’s pressure throughout the first half was not rewarded until the 40th minute when Kemsley scored his second try after a five metre scrum. Falls converted to bring the score to 14-0.

Steve Quinn, giving another outstanding performance, had his game cut short with a knee injury. His replacement, Adrian Montague, who scored with his first touch last week, was not to repeat this feat but made a great contribution to the game.

The Elks, playing up the slope, lost shape and Ashbourne’s spoiling tactics were very effective.

The visitors started exerting pressure as the Elks had in the first half. With confidence growing Ilkeston had to defend attacks from both forwards and backs. Pressure told and after ten minutes Ashbourne’s Claire went over for an unconverted try to bring the score to 14-5.

Josh Newton came off and was replaced by Greg Taylor making his Ilkeston debut. The Elks made an attack from kick-off and again the Ashbourne forwards were penalised killing the ball. Falls stepped up and put the ball between the posts to increase their lead to 17-5.

Ashborne changed one of the front row trio and their scrum steadied and started to dominate. With their tails up and the Elks’ game looking scrappy, the home side were pinned in their own half.