Amersham & Chiltern’s inauspicious start to life in the London & South East division National League Three continued with a 39-5 loss to Hertford on Saturday.

Chiltern were made to pay for a number of costly second half errors as Hertford took control of proceedings and romped home.

The match was played in awful conditions and Chiltern were found wanting by an experienced home side who dealt with the elements far better.

They battled hard in the first half and Chiltern’s Cam McDonald made a number of try saving tackles to ensure the match was scoreless after 25 minutes.

A penalty from inside the Chiltern 22 soon broke the deadlock though, and Richie Williams’ side were now chasing the game.

They regained their composure well and their best spell of the game almost yielded some points, before a catastrophic final five minutes to the half unfolded.

Firstly, a needless penalty gave Hertford’s full-back a chance to make it 6-0, which he gleefully took.

Chiltern looked to have turned the game back in their favour moments later as Jonny Hughes made a fine break but was held up at the 22.

A wild pass then allowed Hertford to break the length of the field and earn a scrum which led to Gareth Wehrle being sin-binned.

They scored under the posts from the resulting set piece to take a 13-0 lead into the interval.

A tiring Chiltern could do little to contain their opponents in the second half and Hertford ran in a further four tries.

The visitors did show some of the quality which had earned them promotion last season and to their credit remained committed throughout.

They gained some semblance of a reward for their efforts when some smart passing play allowed McDonald to touch down for their only score of the game.

Chiltern will hope for a far greater return when they take on Southend at Weedon Lane on Saturday.

They head into the match rooted to the foot of the division and come up against a side who got their first win of the season against Westcliff last time out.

Elsewhere, Marlow were in excellent form as they climbed to second in the South West Division Southern Counties North table.

They controlled proceedings as they ran out 28-14 winners against Buckingham who sit second bottom of the table.

High Wycombe were also in good form in the same division as they kicked off their campaign with a 20-10 win over Gosford All Blacks, while Beaconsfield lost 20-15 to Thatcham.