In front of a large crowd, the home side soon opened their account with winger Richard Yates scoring his first try of the season after only five minutes. Yates soon added a second showing his pace to score in the corner and with only ten minutes gone Watford were 12-0 up.

The home sides traditional dominance of the set piece continued, the tight five controlling both scrum and line out which enabled the back line to thrive. Andy Lee and Josh Wilkinson both looked particularly threatening, the two combining in midfield to send Sean Silver under the posts.

The bonus point was in sight, and soon achieved when Andy Lee broke through and passed to supporting brother Martin for his first of the afternoon.

Despite the scoreboard, Watford were not having everything go their way. The breakdown was a concern, with Chess regularly able to disrupt or steal the home teams ball. With the last play of the half, Chess scored a deserved try with their winger showing exceptional pace to round the covering defence and score.

Despite securing the four tries needed, in such a competitive league Watford knew points difference is likely to play a point at some stage and set to compiling as big a score as possible in the second period.

The breakdown issues were addressed, Yates completing his hat trick after a neat pass from Simon Bram. Watford blooded youngster Chris Routley at prop, the big man contributing well at the set piece to continue Watford's dominance there.

Paul Dunlop added his first of the season, soon followed by James Powell who was once more outstanding for the hosts.

Watford's superiority at the scrum earned a pushover try for skipper Martin Lee, before Wilkinson scored a deserved try against his old club.

With time running out Wilkinson broke through only to be felled by a high tackle, resulting in a ten minute breather for the offender when many on the sideline felt red would have been more appropriate.

Watford opted for a scrum, Andy Lee running a hard line before offloading to Bram to complete a fine afternoons work for the home side.

A pleasing afternoons work for Watford, who will feel that there is still more to come.

Man of the Match: Andy Lee. Didn't add to the scoresheet himself but was at the heart of much of Watford's good work. Carried strongly at centre and was immovable in defence.

WotW: Luke Hammill. Broke through and left himself with only the full back to beat. Decided he was in a charitable mood and passed the ball back to a Chess Valley player.

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