SASHA O’Clee scored Wycombe Belles’ first ever competitive try but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from falling to defeat in their historic first league match.


They went down to a 29-10 defeat at home to Marlow but skipper Annabelle Thomas says the positives far outweighed the scoreline.


 She said: “We were well chuffed. Marlow are very experienced at this level, they have some experienced players and half of their side are county players.


“For us to perform the way we did in our first match against a side like that, I’m very pleased.”


It was nip and tuck in the first quarter, before Marlow pulled away in the middle stages, but Wycombe rallied again in the final stages to score their second try through Amy Saunders.


And the scoreline might have been even closer had the Belles not been without their fly-half who dislocated a finger in their final warm-up game two weeks earlier.


Thomas said: “I think there are a lot of positives we can take from the game.


“They won but they had pace on the wing and that’s where we were lacking.


“They weren’t winning the set-pieces or the breakdown, it was the pace that did for us.”


Marlow won it with a hat-trick of tries from their skipper Steph Clough and two tries from player coach Uzma Ullah-Kiani, who also kicked two conversions.


But Thomas said: “I’m really encouraged by how it went. It was a proud day for us to be playing our first competitive fixture and we can take a lot of pride in how we played.”


It doesn’t get any easier for the new team on the block though.


On Sunday they face their first away trip of the season and it is against a Maidenhead Ladies outfit who are well established on the competitive circuit.


Thomas said: “They are a huge club who have been in the league for a very long time.”


But it won’t be a journey completely into the unknown for the Belles.


The clubs had a close relationship before the Belles joined the Merit League this year with the two teams helping each other out by lending each other players.


While the ladies could not chalk up a first ever win, the men’s side are also still looking for their first success of the season in South West Division One East.


They followed up their opening-day defeat at the hands of Maidenhead with another last weekend.
This time it was Newbury Blues who were their conquerors in a match which finished in a 17-0 victory to their hosts.


Tomorrow Wycombe will be hoping to make it third time lucky when they play host to Swindon, but their task could not be much tougher.


The Wiltshire outfit have won both of their matches so far this season and sit in second place in the fledgling league table.