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Brave Droitwich go down fighting

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Better late than never, here's the report from Friday's North Midlands Cup quarter-final against Bromsgrove.

Droitwich 7 Bromsgrove 53

The first encounter between fierce neighbours in 20 years went to the form book as Bromsgrove romped to an emphatic victory at the Glyn Mitchell Memorial Ground on Friday night.

Bromsgrove can savour a semi-final away at Whitchurch in the North Midlands Cup on April 16, while Droitwich, bottom of the Midlands Division Three West (South) go back to their relegation battle.

Bromsgrove counter-attack

However, while Bromsgrove rightly take local bragging rights, a young Droitwich side, low on confidence after fighting against the drop all season, did their best to match their Worcestershire rivals.

Droitwich, eager to rattle their rivals from two divisions above, made a frenzied start and forced Bromsgrove back in the opening minutes of the game.

However, once the Boars got to grips with their opponent's tactics they were able to hit Droitwich on the break.

Richard Trigg opened the scoring, when the speedy winger intercepted a loose Droitwich pass and roared in for a try, which fly-half Matt Birch converted.

This opened the flood gates and Richard Stockholm profitted the most as he grabbed four tries.

Mark Cornelius, Steve Blackburn and Mike Lamas all punished Droitwich with touch downs.

Spirited Droitwich never gave up through a hard match and captain Matt Blackmore pulled a consolation try back - which he converted himself.

Trigg grabbed his second touch down, when he caught Birch's probing kick forward and raced through for the best try of the game.

Bromsgrove director of coaching Dean Ball said, “To be fair to Droitwich they did an excellent job in stopping us play the way we wanted to. They never gave up and actually did very well. But I am a little disappointed, as I don't believe we played to our strengths at all.”

Matt Birch also had a quiet game - the usually reliable kicker missing seven conversions.

Ball said, “Matt didn't couldn't get use to the ball that Droitwich used. I don't always stand up for him, but on this occasion I think it was a slightly different shape and it affected his kicking.”

Droitwich captain Blackmore took the positives from the defeat.

He said: “I was thoroughly pleased with the way we played. Some people thought Bromsgrove would reach the 100 point mark but we proved them wrong. The only real difference was their pace - Bromsgrove were excellent hitting us on the break.”

Bromsgrove are set to meet Droitwich for the second week in a row when the Boars play an A side in a friendly at Finstall Park on Saturday (3pm start).

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