Round-up - Bedford Blues hosting Doncaster Knights - Ampthill head to London Scottish

Ampthill earned a tight 21-19 victory over Coventry in their first home game of the season, but Bedford Blues lost 40-28 at Jersey Reds despite a second-half comeback.

Blues trailed 26-7 at half time after Pat Tapley sprinted 40m to score, but came back to secure the four-try bonus point through Matt Worley, Oli Stedman and Jack Hughes.

Doncaster Knights are the visitors to Goldington Road tomorrow (Friday) at 7.45pm for another Greene King IPA Championship fixture.

Ampthill’s supporters enjoyed a good win at Dillingham Park, with all their points coming from the boot - six penalties for Russell Bennett and one kicked by Fin Smith on his second appearance off the bench.

Ampthill’s head coach Paul Turner hopes the team can build on their victory and head to London Scottish this week full of confidence.

A positive performance there will set up another exciting battle of Bedfordshire, when Ampthill host the first of this season’s Championship derby games with Bedford Blues on October 9.

“Coventry have never beaten us here in the league but they’re strong and I thought they’d be a tough nut to crack,” Turner admitted after the game.

“We’ve done it, got our first win and our confidence will be up after that.

“It could have gone either way but we’ll probably need the win more than Coventry so I’m really proud of them.

“We feel as though we’ve left something on the table and allowed them to get back at us. I’m buoyed by our performance. I said to the players to be better than their opposite number and I thought most of ours were today.”

Top of the table, Bedford Athletic’s 34-28 result over Dronfield kept up their winning start to the season in Midlands 1 East.

Nick Thomas scored the first try and his good work led to Rob Watkins touching down. With Leo Mortimer’s conversions and two penalties Athletic led 20-11 at half time.

A penalty try and another great move finished by Watkins competed Athletic’s scoring.

They face another unbeaten side at Kettering on Saturday.

In their opening match Bedford Queens lost 33-3 at Luton in Midlands 3 East (South) and host Melton Mowbray this weekend.

Bedford Swifts beat Thorney 66-0 in Midlands 4 East (South) after their visitors conceded after an hour, the physicality of the game seeing them incur several injuries and run out of replacements.

New captain, Steve Hill started the deluge of first-half tries, with others by Copley, de Villiers-Winder and Tuffin before Alex Smith completed a hat-trick of tries from full back.

Smith converted five out of the seven first-half touchdowns and went on to amass a personal tally of 31 points for the game.

Dario Nangle scored two tries from the wing, with excellent service from Gareth Tindall, who excelled at hooker all afternoon with one for Tommy McCollin.

Swifts have a trip to play Aylestone St James on Saturday.