Spalding 39 Kesteven 22
An entertaining game played out in surprising sunshine saw the hosts come out 17-point winners to maintain fifth spot in the Counties One Midlands East (North) table, just three points off second place.
Prop Zain Berge launched himself over the try line by the corner flag for the opening unconverted try and five minutes later repeated the trick.
Henry Duce saw a gap in Kesteven’s defence and pressed the accelerator to sail through a gap in the visitors’ defence. An easier conversion kick saw Spalding 17 points to the good after 22 minutes
With the try line begging, a knock on denied Spalding of a further try but inside centre Sam Booth made up for that when he cut a line through Kesteven’s defence for a further unconverted try to secure the bonus point.
An unconverted try from Lachlan Summers made it 27-0 at half-time.
The second half was a different story with Kesteven coming strong through their forward play to outscore the hosts 22-12.
However, that came after Spalding thought they had wrapped up a comfortable win when Gav Sharman ran clear and Duce converted to open a 34-point advantage.
The visitors responded with a try down the right wing but Spalding responded quickly with Alexander Creak and Charlie Beecham coming off the bench to combine for another home try.
At 39-5 with only 15 minutes left to play, Kesteven turned up the heat to score three tries.
Elephants: Parker, Humphreys, Berge, Douglas, Hobson, Summers, Firth, Grundy, W Shields, Duce, Sharman, Booth, Patrick, B Shields, Machin. Subs: Rollinson, Beecham, Creak.
