The visitors had made a number of changes from the previous weeks narrow defeat to Instonians, to give a few players some game time and rest one or two others.

In glorious early autumn sunshine the game got underway with Ards looking the more positive in the opening early exchanges.

With only 8 minutes on the clock, Ards went into an early lead when Stewart Paul touched down just left of the uprights for Ards 1st XV debutant, Joel Depledge to convert.

The initial joy soon turned to concern however when Peter Croan emerged with what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder in the run up to the try. Seconds later, Ards try scorer Paul, appeared to be struggling with a groin injury. Both players were forced to retire from the game with Croan later conveyed to hospital. Everyone at Ards wish Peter a speedy recovery.

Hinch seized on a disorganised Ards and were rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts straight after the restart which was easily converted.

Ards quickly regrouped but were not able to hold out an unconverted Hinch try on 19 minutes. Minutes later another Ards infringement proved costly when a second Hinch penalty was landed.

The visitors were now starting to unravel with the loss of the influential Paul and conceded a further unconverted try and penalty, leaving the score sitting at 19 - 7 to the hosts at the break, but still all to play for.

At the restart, Ards came out of the blocks the quickest and made great yardage towards the Hinch whitewash only to be denied with solid defence resulting in turnover ball. Ards quickly regrouped but on 55 minutes, Hinch bisected the goalposts once more after another costly penalty error.

Onisi Burekama too, had picked up a knock late in the second half and was forced to leave the arena and although a Hinch player had been yellow carded for preventing Captain Mark Banford from taking a quick tap penalty, there was nothing much more Ards could do to change the impending end result.

Not to be too despondent at the loss of such key players, Ards hammered the Hinch try-line for about 20 minutes, but to no avail. On 3 separate occasions and in quick succession in the last 7 minutes, Hinch gained possession on their own try-line and ran the full length of the pitch to shut out the visitors once and for all with another 3 tries to win 39 - 7 on the day.

All in all, this was a frustrating game from an Ards perspective. Hinch had bolstered their ranks with a few players who had dropped down from their firsts due to an influx of Ulster fringe players for their senior league game against Banbridge (so much for an even playing field) and Ards had picked up some nasty injuries with key players.

The normally elusive Epi Ratu, couldn't get the time or space to ghost his way through the Hinch ranks and powerhouse Bale Tabaiwalu, was heavily policed throughout the game with at least 2 hosts hanging from his shirt tails at every opportunity.

One player who was able to get a bit of space to try and open up the hosts defence was Nathan Graham. The youngster showed a lot of silky skills and made good ground on a number of occasions with forays into enemy territory.

Disappointing result perhaps, but a useful exercise nonetheless.

Congratulations to Hinch on a well deserved victory and thanks to the Ards travelling support and also to the match official on the day.

Ards team:- M Weir, P Bond, B Orr, J Harris, G McBurney, P Croan, O Burekama, B Tabaiwalu, M Banford (c), S Paul, P Cox, J DePledge, E Ratu, M McLean, N Graham, A Foster and C McClure