Beccles reached the halfway point of the season at the top of London Division 3 North East after a 23-5 win against third-placed Wisbech. Beccles start the second half of the season with a big local derby against Lowestoft & Yarmouth on Saturday.

Beccles reached the halfway point of the season at the top of London Division 3 North East after a 23-5 win against third-placed Wisbech.

Beccles start the second half of the season with a big local derby against Lowestoft & Yarmouth on Saturday.

Lowestoft have not been beaten at home for two years but Beccles will be travelling with the intent of ending that record and finishing the year at the top of the table.

Beccles 23, Wisbech 5

After a slow start to the game Beccles recovered to win 23-5.

Rob Wilson returned to the front row and Tipple started in the back row. Arnold came in on the wing for his first appearance of the season after coming back from university.

Beccles started the game slowly and some poor kicking put them under pressure on their own line.

Wisbech fed the ball wide and the winger managed to squeeze in at the corner to touch down.

Beccles were dominating in the scrum driving the Wisbech pack back. This gave good ball for the backs to use. Beccles won a penalty which Wade kicked to get Beccles on the scoreboard.

Beccles had Wisbech pinned in their own half. The ball was driven towards the Wisbech line and was spread wide to the backs.

Rowney did well to pick up a loose pass and cut between the defence to score in the corner.

Wade added a long-range conversion to give a half-time score of 10-5.

In the second half Beccles showed good control over the game to twice win penalties in range for Wade to extend their lead.

The forwards were working well at the breakdown which was giving good, quick ball to the dangerous-looking Beccles backs.

Wisbech began to show why they are sitting third in the table with some strong-running rugby but they could not find a way through the solid Beccles defence.

There were some big tackles being put in by the Beccles players all over the pitch, led by Musker McIntyre man-of-the-match Paul Wilson.

Beccles sealed the win with another try. The ball was fed across the pitch with both backs and forwards linking well.

This created space for Rowney out wide who rounded the defence and scored his second try of the day under the posts.

Wade kicked the conversion to clinch the game by 23-5.