The visitors, despite their absentees, still agreed to fulfil the fixture and their ranks were swelled by the addition of the evergreen Roger Asher and Andy Rowe with emerging talent Neil Oglesbee and John Motton also filling in.

Bourne went forward with purpose from the start and it was no surprise that the prolific Serge MacDonald was on the end of some sharp handling following penetrative work by the pack.

Despite a number of handling errors, Bourne's high-pace game led to further tries as Harvey Sherwin, Chris Mulhern and John Hume crossed the whitewash. Phil Whittock stepped up to land the first of five conversions.

The lead was increased as ball was kicked through to full-back Elliott Brookes on his own line and, looking to counter-attack, he opened up the field before releasing John Burgin just short of halfway.

With Andy Sims and MacDonald pulling the defence wide, Burgin flamboyantly sashayed through an opening gap before pinning back his ears to score under the posts.

There was still time for Sherwin to capitalise on an error as Sleaford attempted to clear before the half-time whistle blew.

With the visitors having suffered a number of injuries, changes were made to both sides – hooker Sleight and wing Turner swapped teams and Glen Smith moved to the Bourne wing with Matt Cuffe and Mark Bills going into the home pack.

Bourne found more consistency in their handling in the second half and looked dangerous whenever the ball was moved wide.

A series of pick and drives on the left side enabled Burgin to release the backs as MacDonald completed his hat-trick and then Brookes opened his account for the afternoon.

Sleaford began to flag against Bourne's young backs, but they were given a lesson by Asher who, in as the opposition full-back, stopped the rampaging Cuffe in his tracks with a courageous tackle.

Shortly afterwards the hooker rumbled over to score as Bourne's forwards continued their aggressive defence which pressurised the visitors into a number of turnovers on their 22.

Quick recycling let Whittock free Burgin who scooted in for try number two before another break ended with Sims finding Burgin with a sublime delayed pass, the fly-half going over for his first career treble.

With time running down another break on the left side of the field ended with Brookes gliding in from 35 metres out, keeping him in the hunt for the elusive top try scorer trophy.

Byron Linn, having spent the afternoon straightening Bourne's running lines, added the conversion to conclude the game.

Bourne: Elliott Brookes, Serge MacDonald, Byron Linn, Andy Sims, John Turne, John Burgin, Phil Whittock, Richard Bentley, Simon Sleight, Karl Gray, Chris Mulhern, Matthew Plumridge, John Hume, Harvey Sherwin. Reps. Mark Bills, Glen Smith, Matt Cuffe.