Dereham grabbed the early-season bragging rights with a scintillating win at rivals Fakenham on Saturday, writes Tim Evans.

The away team had to soak up early pressure from Fakenham who came flying out of the blocks. They were equal to the challenge however and held firm – despite fly half Jack Edwards receiving a harsh yellow card in the 13th minute for a late tackle.

It was Dereham who looked most likely to score first however when their Fijian full back, Isiar Bobo, made 50 yards before he was just caught by a scrambling Fakenham defence. Dereham were finding the pace of the game now and a final forward pass denied centre Harry Graham from opening the scoring.

With Edwards back on the field, Dereham were taking the game to the hosts and it was Edwards himself who ran wide and under the posts to open their account. Marcus Evans obliged with the conversion. Bobo maintained his fine form when he set up Graham after another break from deep and the centre showed a good turn of pace to outstrip the Fakenham defence on the outside (converted).

Edwards was on the scoresheet again when Dereham moved the ball wide quickly to outnumber the Fakenham covering defence.

Chris Fish made a break from the back of the scrum, passed to Edwards who released winger Brett Stolworthy to score wide. Evans converted well from the touchline. In the closing minutes of the first half, Evans made 40 yards with an excellent kick out of hand and from a subsequent ruck, Bobo jinked another 30 yards to score (converted). Dereham were rampant now and the final play of the half saw prop forward Lewis Smith pick up good loose ball to score (converted) to make it 40-0 at the break,

At the start of the second half, fly half Edwards was unable to continue so Gilly Amys took to the field for Dereham. He soon made an impact with his strong running. Another Dereham score looked inevitable and it came from Amys on the crash ball.

Fakenham were on the ropes and another great series of off-loads saw winger Stolworthy with the ball to score in the corner (unconverted). Amys added to his personal total from the back of another ruck and Fakenham earned some reward from the game with an interception in the 75th minute which saw Jack Whiteside score under the posts, Prop Chris Gossip converted.

The away team finished on the front foot however with the last score going to Fijian 'Nav' in the final minute. Following an excellent all-round performance, the East Coast Castings man of the match was Lewis Smith.

Dereham Captain Dan Ponder said: This was another good performance from the boys and it's always satisfying to win well in a local derby. I think there's more to come though from this team and we'll be looking for further improvement as the season progresses.'