Nottingham were unable to get back to winning ways in this rearranged league fixture, as Ampthill came away with their second win on the bounce thanks mainly to a stunning first half performance.

Ampthill opened the scoring inside the first minute when Josh Skelcey bulldozed his way over the line to immediately punish Nottingham’s fumbling of the opening kickoff.

They then continued to control the game and doubled their advantage twenty minutes later through Syd Blackmore who got the ball down over the line after a well-executed driving maul.

Tom Bacon added a third after 32 minutes, finishing in the corner after a looped pass from Hardwick missed out his centres and Ampthill had their bonus point three minutes later when Blackmore added his second. This time supporting Hardwick in a line break and scoring under the posts giving them a 24-0 lead.

Nottingham did get some joy just before half time, though. David Williams managed to get over the line to punish an Ampthill error from the restart. The try meant Nottingham were still alive in the game heading into the break, and reminded Ampthill of their attacking threat.

The second half started just as the first ended, with Williams putting another try on the board for the visitors. He finished off a great team move in the right-hand corner to put Nottingham back within 12 points.

However, Ampthill responded strongly as Morgan Strong added Ampthill’s fifth following a tap-and-go penalty less than 10 minutes later.

Nottingham still weren’t down and out though, as they scored a maul try of their own with just over 20 minutes to go. Harry Clayton was the man who eventually got the ball down over the line

Unfortunately, the home side all but confirmed the result when Dom Morris got over the line to finish a sweeping move from the Ampthill backs and make the difference 19 points with just 15 minutes left on the clock

Josh Poullet did manage to score the all-important bonus point try with 10 minutes remaining. Craig Hammond’s men spent the final 10 minutes pushing pushing for one more score to get within seven points for the losing bonus point, but Ampthill did well to keep them out.

Nottingham return to The Bay for the first time in nearly a month next weekend, as they take on Hartpury.