VIDEO: Ilkeston ease to victory over Matlock in testing conditions

Ilkeston handled the tricky conditions on the day better than their opponents and ran in six tries to extend their winning run to four in the Midlands Division One East.

Numerous mistakes littered the opening minutes as the strength of the wind took both sides by surprise.

Elks were first to settle and from an attacking line out good play from Joel Haigh and Steve Quinn eventually saw a quick ball to Hugh Smith to finish strongly in the corner. Haigh missed a difficult conversion.

Matlock responded well down the hill and showed plenty of resillience throughout but were unable to maintain pressure to force mistakes in the Elks defence.

Haigh and Quinn were involved once more before Greg Taylor made good ground and fed Tom Pottinger who crashed through under the posts. Haigh with the extras made it 12-0.

Elks came straight back from the kick-off. They kept the ball well and the pressure eventually told when Jake Lamb extended the lead to 17-0.

Matlock’s back row of Tom Crattenden, Jack Wagg and Simon Wright all put in a good shift as did locks Chris Atkinson and Adam Twyford and it was Twyford that scored a try to reduce the arrears.

It was the best it got for Matlock, however, as uncharacteristic errors were ruthlessly punished by a well-drilled home side.

Elks recorded further tries from Keiran Lang, Andor Benyi - both converted by Haigh - and Matt McGuire made it 36-5.