The opening match of the Loughborough Festival saw Hinckley up against Syston, and in tough slippery conditions it was Hinckley who got off to the perfect start with a score from Davey, an evenly matched contest followed with both sides failing to break each others defence, the wet boggy conditions causing both teams difficulty resulting in numerous handling errors, but Hinckley managed to hold on to their lead at half time. With a half time team talk on how to combat Syston continuously being off side, Hinckley deployed the kicking tactic, this paid off straight away when Nixon kicked to the corner, and the resulting pressure caused panic within the Syston backs, who threw a wild pass for Nixon himself to intercept and run in an excellent score.Syston replied with two quick scores of their own to end the match Hinckley 10pts Syston 10pts.