Lowestoft & Yarmouth 5, Beccles 37TOP of the table Beccles ended L&Y's 30-month unbeaten home record in the Waveney Valley derby.Beccles pounced on every opportunity to score.

Lowestoft & Yarmouth 5, Beccles 37

TOP of the table Beccles ended L&Y's 30-month unbeaten home record in the Waveney Valley derby.

Beccles pounced on every opportunity to score. L&Y made much more of a contest than the scoreline suggested but their more ponderous approach made hard work of breaching the determined Beccles defence. Whereas, despite conceding large portions of territory and possession, every time Beccles seemed to attack, they scored either through outstanding pace, or by capitalising on the luck of the bounce.

It was a harsh lesson L&Y must learn before they have any chance of challenging for league honours.

A breakdown infringement after three minutes gave Beccles man-of-the-match Luke Wade the chance to kick the first three of his 17-point haul early on.

Shortly after, he was given space out on the left wing but, as the L&Y defence closed him down, he chipped into midfield then miraculously appeared out a of melee of players to run in the softest of tries under the posts.

This spurred L&Y into a period of dominance but their pick-and-drives did little to challenge the defence in open play.

The defence held firm particularly Steve Adams in the centre and Josh Fewkes and Kristan Taylor Crisp on the wings.

L&Y captain and No 8 Marc Thomas had an outstanding game and along with Chris Howe and Steve Powles was at the heart of every decent L&Y surge.

It wasn't until the 25th minute that L&Y finally got a maul rolling and took it a full 40 metres to the Beccles line, only to be foiled by another breakdown infringement.

Sam Williamson scored a brilliant Beccles try in the corner. Wade converted and after 35 minutes, with very little possession Beccles, already had the game won.

L&Y gamely continued their determined onslaught and another maul down the right gave Tom Castleton and Scott Nelson the chance to send Myles McAlone bursting through the Beccles midfield. Rowney caught him on the line but a quick release to Brad Sutherland saw the full back over the line and showed what L&Y could do with quicker use of their possession.

L&Y penned Beccles into the left corner of their 22. A Stuart Murray clearance kick down the line was cleverly kept in play by Sutherland, however the full back promptly passed the ball straight to the charging Williamson for the Kiwi centre to gratefully accept an easy second score.

On 70 minutes Beccles stole an L&Y line-out on their 22, and with a drive and a penalty clearance downfield they totally broke the home team's resistance and ruthlessly closed in for the kill. They showed L&Y how to score from a five metre scrum.

Wade added another penalty, then in the final minutes the centre came right from a breakdown, kicked into space on the wing where Rowney unsurprisingly won the race to the bouncing ball and tapped inside for captain Stuart Murray to seal a convincing, if lopsided, scoreline.

Team: Bristo (McElroy), Nixon, Titterington, Coleman (Oakes), Wilkinson, Powles, Howe, Thomas, Castleton, Nelson, Fewkes (Boardley), Adams, McAlone, Taylor Crisp, Sutherland.