Midlands 5 East (South) St Ives Bulls 26 Stoneygate 14 BULLS completed a hat-trick of league wins as they kept up their fine home form against Stoneygate. Last week s triumph against Kempston left St Ives in high spirits and these shone through with a hig

Midlands 5 East (South)

St Ives Bulls 26 Stoneygate 14

BULLS completed a hat-trick of league wins as they kept up their fine home form against Stoneygate.

Last week's triumph against Kempston left St Ives in high spirits and these shone through with a high-tempo opening from the home side.

St Ives played up the slope into the strong wind in the first half and Stoneygate took advantage to take an early lead with some strong pressure.

The pattern continued with the visitors making the most of the wind but some gutsy defending from the Bulls restricted Stoneygate to just one more converted try.

St Ives continued to battle and shrugged off their 14-point deficit with Ollie Jones producing some strong running on the flanks before setting up Marc Sands to score under the posts. Adam Clark successfully converted.

Trailing 14-7 at half time, Bulls began the second period determined to take advantage of the strong wind and slope.

The home side's front row of Pete Hammond, Gez Gilburt and Josh Dear earned St Ives good ball possession and Steve Burke benefited from a pushover try.

Stoneygate put in some fine defensive work to keep Bulls at bay but it seemed the next score was only a matter of time and so it proved when Bryan Richardson crashed over and Clark converted to make it 19-14.

Richardson made the win safe in the dying minutes with Clark converting to make the final score 26-14.

Bulls captain Ross Thompson said: "Somersham Road is becoming a fortress and we are delighted to have taken revenge on Stoneygate for our defeat earlier this season.

"It was a magnificent performance and we are looking forward to the next two tough games."

St Ives face a home tie against Peterborough II in the Hunts and Peterborough cup next weekend with league leaders Bedford Swifts following soon after.

* St Ives II also enjoyed a home victory, defeating Biggleswade 34-5. John Paxton scored a hat-trick with James Cannon, Paul Ashbridge and Alec Campbell also scored.