Bees 35 Hull Ionians 3

Stuart Dixon must have been a worried man when he realised he had forgotten his boots prior to this North Division One fixture at Wagon Lane.

But borrowing Sam Cummins' boots obviously did the trick as the Bees centre kicked five conversions and scored a hat-trick of tries in a 25-point haul.

Despite the foul weather, the hosts managed to keep the ball flowing in their accustomed style, and had a number of candidates for man of the match. Hooker Leon Treco was prominent in what was a good effort from the home pack, but he received able support from prop Mark heap and flanker Ian Judson, both of whom were willing to carry the ball to the heart of the Ionians' defence.

Scrum half Joe Nau was again in top form, and full back Ben Greaves was always dangerous with ball in hand.

However, as in much of their first meeting four weeks previously, Ionians - inspired by their player-coach Derek Eves - made the Bees earn every metre of territory. The visitors' backline were much more involved in defence than attack and were undone more than once by inspiration from Dixon and Nau.

They combined as early as the third minute, a break by the scrum half putting Dixon through a gap to score.

They doubled their advantage in the 12th minute when Greaves stepped through the covering defence to leave Dixon with a simple conversion.

Ionians managed a penalty in the 33rd minute, but almost immediately Dixon tore through from 40 metres and, despite looking for support, had enough pace to slide in at the corner. Ahead 21-3 at half-time, the Bees continued to prosper as the temperature dropped, Asa Firth going over for a textbook winger's try in the 48th minute, Dixon converting superbly from wide out.

Although they were reduced to 14 men for a spell, Ionians kept the Bees at Bay until the 73rd minute.

Then, almost inevitably, it was Dixon who intercepted a stray pass to race 50 metres to bag his 11th try of the season. Dixon also added the conversion.