Opening-day blues as trio suffer pointless experience
It was a tough opening all round in National Three Midlands as South Leicester, Hinckley and Syston all came away empty-handed.
Hinckley were closest to landing a bonus point in a 18-10 setback at newly-promoted Sutton Coldfield, South lost 20-3 at home to Ampthill, while Syston went down 29-13 at home to Broadstreet.
There were Hinckley debuts for former South duo Mitch Culpin and Kris McFedries, fellow backs Blane Howe and ex Leicester Lions No.8 Jeremy Saxon and the team took a while to settle to their task.
The visitors were 15-0 down before Ryan Oakes kicked a penalty and Saxon got a debut try. Oakes slotted the conversion to ensure Hinckley were at least in a position to land a bonus point but a late penalty denied any tangible reward.
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South gave debuts in the backs to Gareth Kerr, Will Cave, Andy Gates, Danny Graney and Joe Glover while, in the pack, Keiran Stone and Will Ward opened their account.
Glover kicked a penalty to open the scoring but Elliot Clement-Hill equalised almost immediately. South lost prop Keiran Stone to a hamstring injury, replaced by Rod McNaughton, while Josh McLaurin succumbed to a yellow card as defences dominated and both sides struggled to make a breakthrough.
Clement-Hill kicked three further penalties to put Ampthill 12-3 up on the hour mark.
South threw caution to the wind as Cave broke out of defence, while Wes Cartwright was unlucky not to latch on to a pass with the line beckoning.
Bale and Gates were again halted close to the visitors' line when South were camped in the red zone but Ampthill hung on and went on to confirm victory.
South were caught out by a late Tony Begovic score, while Clement-Hill kicked a fifth penalty deep into injury time to increase the agony.
There were difficult away openers for Loughborough and Market Bosworth in Midlands One East as both teams conceded a half-century of points.
Loughborough lost 58-13 at Peterborough while Bossie, in their first game back at this level, were beaten 54-22 at Towcestrians.
Nic Simon and Andy Jones scored for Loughborough while Lee Gunton added a penalty.
Bosworth will now travel to Loughborough for an intriguing battle this Saturday.
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