Eastern Counties 3 Aldeburgh & Thorpeness 33 Ipswich Thirds 15 A mild, late September afternoon saw a ready and willing Aldeburgh dominate visitors Ipswich in front of record crowds at the King’s Field, writes Malcolm Beer.

The match began with a strong yet injury prone start from Ipswich. Within the first 12 minutes the visitors made two blood replacements.

However, their initial bad fortune was quickly turned as a storming run by the Ipswich no. 5 in the 21st minute ended with a try just to the left of the sticks, which went unconverted.

From the restart Aldeburgh looked hungry. Lots of pick and drive ball and quick phases of play fed captain Matt Deane for a try in the 25th, swiftly converted by Danny Collett.

More Ipswich injury was followed by another Aldeburgh try this time by Sebastian Rabiller, a recent newcomer; converted by Collett in the 37th minute.

Injury struck Aldeburgh on the restart with a broken collarbone the reward for Matt Elias after an awkward tackle. The Greens replaced him with Richie Walker.

Strong scrums for Aldeburgh gained ground on Ipswich pushing nearly 20-metres in just a few phases allowing Kristian Curling the space to make a run on the far side during the last phase of the half, and place a try on the periphery, this time with no conversion from Collett.

The second half opened with a Richie Walker try for Aldeburgh between the posts and more success for Collett’s right boot.

All of a sudden Aldeburgh seemed to lose their composure with a spate of unnecessary penalties, handling errors and lost ground from the Greens.

A dogged Ipswich capitalised on this lack of discipline, putting down two unconverted tries and making it look easy.

Aldeburgh rallied after a stern word from coach Paddy Allen, making back that lost ground in the scrums and pushing a now weary-looking Ipswich around the park.

But despite a number of good attempts on the wing and from the maul, the Greens were unable to capitalise.