Epping Upper Clapton kept up their excellent start to the season by winning 52-8 at Bancroft on Saturday.

Having started slowly, Epping were not helped by conceding numerous silly penalties in the first ten minutes, one of which was converted by Bancroft to give the hosts an early 3-0 lead From the restart, a fine break from the back row saw Ross Stalley receive a pass to score a converted try under the posts, making it 7-3 to Epping with 13 minutes gone.

Epping’s line-outs were accurate through and this resulted in a try for Tom Roberts out wide, converted by Stalley to extend the visitors’ lead to 14-3.

As the first half came to a close, another midfield break found Laurie Dobbin, who scored a fine try, which was once again successfully converted by Stally, pushing the score up to 21-3.

The second half carried on as the first had ended, with Ashley Somers running in Epping’s fourth try of the match.

Things went from bad to worse for Bancroft, who then lost two of their players to injury.

However, the hosts were not out of the game and came back at Epping with a well- worked try to make it 26-8.

Normal service was soon resumed and the next try went the way of Epping, who were determined to quell the Bancroft comeback.

This time the Stalley brothers were both involved as Ross crossed the line before converting his own try 33-8 Epping carried on where they left off with another score out wide by Caleb Adetona and the final ten minutes saw a further two tries from Dave Allen - one of which was converted - to make it 52-8 at the close.

Dagenham are the visitors to Epping next Saturday at 3pm.

Epping Ladies are looking for new players of all ages. Anyone interested should attend training at Uplands Road in Epping at 10am on Sundays.