The Eels returned to winning ways with a comfortable win over St Ives, despite fielding seven debutants on their trip to Cambridgeshire.

New arrival Blair Tonkin slotted in well at half-back along with Jimmy Meadows, while the back row of Adam Butterworth, Del O'Riordan and new boy Gareth Lodge put in a hard-working display.

Centres Rob Martin -- who also topped the tackle count -- and Mario De Magalhaes led the scoring as Eels opened up a 30-10 half-time lead, and that pair continued to impress after the break with further scores adding to long-range efforts from Meadows and Lloyd Williams.

Eels now stand joint second in the TotalRL.com conference and face a crunch trip to Luton Vipers next week.

Head coach Stuart Hogg said: "This was a great game and several players really stood out especially the debutants. Medsy and Blair have established a great partnership, Mario showed his class and Del O'Riordan never stopped working."

Essex Eels will unveil another new face when they travel to face Luton Vipers next Saturday.

Australian Student International winger Alan Glyde will be joining the Basildon-based club as the push for a TotalRL.com Conference play-off spot intensifies.

The Eels are also about to launch a second team, and are awaiting the go-ahead from the London League to get that started.

Anyone interested should contact Stuart Hogg on 07759 477824 or go to a training session at Basildon RFC on Tuesday or Thursday at 7pm.

Published Wednesday, June 4, 2003

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