Scouts shoot down Elks

Scouts returned in good spirit from their last match before Christmas celebrating an emphatic away victory.
Playing against the wind but with the advantage of the sloping pitch Scouts could not have dreamt the outcome of the first five minutes.
Ilkeston, who were on a five match winning sequence, were soon on the back foot and a break from fly half Adam Frost saw him into clear space to set up second row Richard Bussey to touch down under the sticks. Frost converted and from the restart Alex McKie was clean through a slack defence before putting Luke Reeves over in the corner.
With twelve points in the bag after five minutes Scouts continued on the offensive and made all the running. With 25 minutes gone centre Liam Hancock shimmied his way through and when his fifty metre run was halted the ball was produced for Jordan Judd to crash over. Frost added the extras.
Frost was soon on the attack again and a neat show and go allowed him to touch down for a try bonus point and then add the simple conversion.
The Elks did manage a penalty to get on the score board with the last kick of the half.
Both the home players and their supporters were stunned by the half time score and whatever was said at the break resulted in the Elks improvement in the second half.
They relentlessly battered their way forward with some slick handling in difficult conditions. This led to an unconverted try in the left corner after ten minutes of the second half .
Scouts defence was excellent as they used good line speed to keep the Elks attack at bay until near the end when the hosts left winger scored his second of the afternoon.
The referee, who had been on top form all game, had been allowing both teams to play open rugby and the intensity of the game was now taking its toll on both sets of players. A rare second half attack from Scouts up the slope saw winger Conor Jeffcoate fly over in the corner and Frost converted to round off the scoring for the day and with the elements worsening both sides were relieved to hear the final whistle.