Bromsgrove 17 - Droitwich 20

Saturday 23rd August 2008

Droitwich travelled to Finstall Park on Thursday evening for a pre-season warm up game against their higher ranked neighbours. Both sides used the occasion to try a number of combinations and give much of their squads valuable game time.

The home side made the early running and pressured the Droitwich line, but good defence, especially by the back row of James Davies, Phil Horton and the evergreen Nick Godfrey, kept the score level. Bromsgrove’s persistence eventually paid off when they squeezed over for a try after 15 minutes.

The visitors hit back, however, with scrum half Steve Poke beginning to run intelligently with the ball. He fed Davies who drove powerfully towards the line to find prop forward Dylan Jones in support to score. Ross Coombes kicked the conversion to give the Spa side the lead.

Bromsgrove ran cleverly with the ball and some well weighted kicks saw the young Droitwich backs show hesitation in defence. One such kick lead to confusion in the Spa ranks, allowing the Bromsgrove winger to kick ahead and run in unopposed.

The Spa side where not to be outdone and a finely weighted kick by Andy Vizor saw them gain ground. More good work by Godfrey saw Phil Horton power over. Matt Blackmore, now on to orchestrate proceedings at outside half, missed the tricky conversion. He was successful with a penalty shortly afterwards.

Droitwich seemed to seal the game when a clever pass by Blackmore found Horton to, once again, power through the defence. This time he fed Sean Walker to score.

Bromsgrove now raised their game and through a series of good kicks and fine handling went the length of the field to pressure the Spa line. Droitwich managed to regain possession, but Blackmore’s clearance kick was charged down to bring the home side within a score.

Droitwich managed to hang on to claim a hard fought win that will give them a great boost ahead of their league campaign.

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