Colchester reached the midway point of the league season with a perfect 11 wins from 11 matches after an incident-filled 39-12 win over Amersham and Chiltern at Raven Park.

A match of two red cards, nine tries, uncontested scrums and any number of talking points ended with both teams down to 13 players. But crucially the win kept Colchester six points clear at the top of Regional 1 South East.

“A funny old game,” said head coach Mike Haywood. “13 against 13 at the end, but the guys stuck at it, and you can’t sniff at five points at home. The boys are doing great.”

A late change saw Will Blakemore out with a damaged foot, Chris Dudman back after 11 weeks out with a bicep injury coming into the centre.

The opening exchanges gave no clue to the drama to come as a penalty on halfway and good work by Dudman and Jack Daly freed Ted Reid who weaved to the line, Gabe Jones converting to put Colchester 7-0 up.

The 14th minute brought the first of six cards shown by the referee, Daly adjudged to have handled on the floor.

From the resulting penalty, Amersham mauled to the line, the referee penalising Colchester for illegally bringing it down. A penalty try and inevitable yellow card for Haydn Sykes reduced the hosts to 13 players.

Colchester weathered the subsequent storm. Indeed, with Daly returning to the fray, the hosts ran in three tries before half-time.

First Ross Taylor, back on the right wing, found space to run to the line. Two minutes later a smart clear-out by Jacob Bodkin led to Ethan Cole dotting down on the opposite wing, then on the stroke of half-time, Louis Martin intercepted and ran 80 metres for the bonus point try to make it 24-7.

Colchester seemed to have the match wrapped up early in the second half when Bodkin fed Reid who was held up over the line, but with the ref playing advantage, Fin McCartney bundled over.

Daly’s second yellow card for getting a hand to the ball while being tackled looked harsh, but two yellows made a red, and Colchester were down to 14.

With Amersham running out of front rowers, the referee called uncontested scrums which also meant the visitors were automatically reduced to 14 players, and Colchester took advantage with McCartney’s second try from a rolling maul.

Amersham were not finished, Ben Harris running 60 metres for their second try and the drama wasn’t over.

Joe Pattinson, on at scrumhalf for Daly, was red carded for aiming a kick, but Amersham were soon also reduced to 13 and in the mayhem, Taylor ran in on the left for his second try and Colchester’s seventh.

Blindside Ardal Yallop took the player-of-the-match award from sponsors Focus, while the coaches’ award, courtesy of the Lexden Crown, went to hooker McCartney.

“A couple of red cards over the past couple of weeks have obviously been disappointing,” said head coach Mike Haywood.

“But you know what? We’re still top of the league, still scoring tries. From my point of view the guys are doing a great job.”

On a disappointing day for the other men’s teams, the Ravens lost 30-5 at West Norfolk, while there were defeats for the As and Cavaliers to Felixstowe and Ipswich YM respectively.