Fakenham's first home league game of the season saw them host Diss at the Stringer Ground. With Diss coming down from the league above, Fakenham knew it would be a tough encounter as they looked to get their first win of the season on the board.

It was a day with all four seasons on show. As the sides warned up, heavy rain turned to hail and everyone was soaked through for the start of the game. Nonetheless, there was still a decent turnout, helped by Diss arriving on a coach with supporters in tow.

The wet weather continued at the start of the game, with neither side managing to master it to score in the early exchanges, despite some consistent pressure from Diss.

The away side did get the first score after quarter of an hour, finally making their pressure tell through strong forward carries. A successful conversion gave them the full complement of points to open their account.

Fakenham struck back soon after, stealing a line out in the Diss half, before going through a few phases until number eight Murray Tindal broke the line on the left. He opened his legs to get round the full back and dot down under the posts. Fly half Lloyd Marshall slotted the simple conversion to draw Fakenham level.

It wasn't long before Diss pulled ahead again via their second try. On this occasion they attacked from their own half, breaking the defensive line before nice interplay between support runners saw them cross to the right of the posts. A good conversion took the away side seven points clear.

Fakenham struck back almost immediately through the boot of Marshall. A penalty to the right of the posts, not far outside the 22, gave him the chance to kick three points. He duly split the uprights to cut the deficit.

The sun came out and players began to dry off, even getting a bit warm. Fakenham moved to the opposition's 5 metre line after kicking to touch from a penalty. They attacked to the left of the posts, but were kept out by some resilient defence. However, another penalty saw Fakenham take it quickly before spreading it wide to the right, where Tindal was lurking with the backs. He burst through a half gap to dot down 15 metres from the right hand touch line. This time Marshall was unsuccessful with the conversion, tweaking something as he took the kick.

That was the last play of the half, giving Fakenham the narrowest of leads, 15 - 14, at the break.

There were no more scores until midway through the second half, as neither side could convert pressure into points and defenses came out on top.

It was the home side that struck next, after a good passage of play saw them attack down the blind side to the right, with winger Ashley Stewart going over in the corner. Inside centre Cameron Baldock, having taken over kicking duties, missed the difficult conversion from wide out.

Fakenham then extended their lead. A strong carry from Tindal saw him surge through the middle, breaking tackles and getting to the Diss 22 before being scragged. He managed to get away an impressive offload behind the back of a defender to his best pal, scrum half Harry Richardson, who then used his pace to score under the posts untouched. Awh, friends. Baldock slotted the simple conversion to give the home side a thirteen point lead with ten minutes to play.

At this point, the heavens opened once more, as the rest of the game was played out with heavy rain and an impressive backdrop of thunder and lightning. This didn't help Diss, who needed to get two converted tries to win.

Fakenham managed the conditions very well to see out the game, with Baldock putting through a couple of lovely kicks to keep Diss pinned in their own 22.

Another kick from Fakenham was dotted down by a Diss player in their dead ball. This led to a goal line drop out that would be the final play of the game. Fakenham fielded the ball well and replacement Damon Howick, playing at full back, had ample opportunity to kick the ball out to end the game. Instead, he threw a few trademark dummies as he carried the ball back up the pitch. Diss managed to get the ball back after it went loose and went on the attack. They made great use of the broken field, with their outside centre showing pace to get to the try line and intelligence to cut back to get closer to the sticks. As a result, they converted the try from just to the right of the posts to earn a losing bonus point. Damo claims he didn't know it was last play, and couldn't hear half the team shouting at him to kick it out as he ran the ball back…

Nonetheless, Fakenham came out victorious with an impressive bonus point win. Diss were strong throughout and looked especially sharp in broken play. The return fixture in the new year promises to be a good one.

The Barsham Brewery Man of the Match went to scrum half Harry Richardson. He controlled the game well from the base of the ruck and scrum, with smart decision making and pass choice throughout, and topped it off with the try that secured the game for Fakenham.

There were a number of good performances from Fakenham, with the tight 5 fronting up well at scrum time, Tindal dominant in attack and defence, and Baldock controlling it well at the death.

Thanks once again to Katering 4U for the lovely match teas.

Thank you to James Peeling for the quality match photos.

Next week sees Fakenham host Thorney in the cup, so come down to the Stringer Ground and support the boys as they look to start a cup run.