St Ives Rugby Club's launch weekend proved a huge success with 10 hours of entertaining rugby for the assembled crowds at the Chicken Shack.
With bouncy castles and food wagons busy, the day began with three 7s tournaments, where crisp handling and hard running led to some high scoring encounters.
Market Bosworth Blue won the under-14 girls' Cup, as their Yellow team took the Bowl and St Ives claimed the Plate.
Wisbech Grammar won the under-16 girls' Cup, with Peterborough Development (Bowl) and St Ives/St Neots (Plate) also celebrating.
Peterborough A won the Colts Cup ahead of Rushden & Higham A, with Peterborough B in third place.
Wisbech Grammar won the Bowl ahead of Haverhill, with Rushden & Higham B in sixth place, and Saffron Walden took Plate honours ahead of St Neots, with Biggleswade ninth.
The enjoyment and hospitality given to visiting sides was well recognised as organiser Tony Wadd received a host of congratulatory messages throughout the day.
The first XV then began the season as they finished the last against Market Bosworth and saw Matt Wood cancel out an early visiting try.
A tremendous team try put Ives ahead as Fleming went over in the corner and Charlie Mandley converted from out wide, but the Bulls then knocked on from the restart and Bosworth went under the posts to make it 12-12 at the break.
The second half could not have started worse for Ives as an ambitious pass only found the turf and the Bosworth winger pounced to score.
The Bulls upped their game and created a number of chances, with a break by Michael Sykes, followed by great runs by Ollie Raine and skipper-for-the-day Alex Henly, who was tackled just short of the line.
But tiny errors thwarted a number of home attacks as the ball slipped from hands and a lapse in the defensive line saw a jinking run by a Bosworth player take him over for a fine individual try.
The visitors scored a third converted try of the half late on to run out 33-12 winners and Ives coach Paul Humphreys said: “It was good to see much of what we have practised out there today.
"The players themselves recognised that the result was much more to do with small errors on our part than our opponents creativity. As this team plays together more, we’ll undoubtedly get the results."
St Ives Legends ran out 44-10 winners over Cambs Barbarians to cap a wonderful day.
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