Valiant Alcester A effort ends in narrow defeat - The Redditch Standard

Valiant Alcester A effort ends in narrow defeat

Redditch Editorial 20th Oct, 2016   0

Alcester A 19 Berkswell & Balsall 22

CAPTAINED by teenager and birthday boy Josh O’Connor, a mix of Alcester firsts and seconds narrowly lost to local rivals Berkswell & Balsall, whose 1st XV ply their trade two divisions above Alcester and who were without a fixture on Saturday.

Following Alcester 1sts’ comfortable win at Berkswell & Balsall earlier this season, this was a much tougher encounter for this Alcester A team as the visitors were able to bolster their ranks with some 1st XV players.

The visitors took the lead early on with a well worked try out wide, but Alcester fought back and led for most of the match.




Tries from winger Ollie Morrison and second row forward Louis Smith, plus a conversion from captain O’Connor, gave Alcester a 12-5 lead at the interval.

Centre Jamie Harland crossed the line to extend his team’s lead early in the second half before substitute Tom Burgess, playing his first game for a number of seasons, slotted over the conversion to make it 19-5 to the home side.


With a comfortable lead, Alcester were the team that looked most likely to win this match, but that was before the visiting pack started to exert real pressure at the set piece, which was a real turnaround from the first meeting of the two clubs earlier in the season when B’s insisted on passive scrums.

A succession of scrums gave Berkswell & Balsall a foothold in the game going into the last quarter of the match. A try followed to close the gap and Alcester struggled to respond.

The home pack was up against it. Prop Carl Platten, second row Luke Spencer and man of the match flanker Neil Loy all did their best to stem the tide, but the momentum had swung towards the visitors.

Two more tries followed for the visitors from the set piece and, as hard as Alcester tried to rescue the victory in the dying minutes, Berkswell & Balsall held on for a narrow victory.

Alcester return to Midlands Four West (South) action on Saturday when they host leaders Coventry Welsh on what is president Andy Miller’s annual lunch day.

So often the opponents on the day of a lunch, Coventry Welsh are a streetwise side and have proved a difficult side to beat over the years for Alcester.

However, with good form in recent weeks and successive league wins under their belt, Alcester will be looking for a different outcome this time.

Alcester Colts 24 Bredon Star Colts 10

ALCESTER Colts overcame the disappointment of local derby defeat at Bromsgrove the previous weekend to record a good win over another local side.

With the appointed match official pulling out of the fixture and with a replacement unable to be found, Alcester coach Neil Stone stood in and did a good job despite carrying a knee injury.

The scores were level at the break as the visitors’ opening try was cancelled out by a try by Alcester’s leading scorer Cian Allen.

The home side lost Joshua Rust to a nasty looking injury which required an ambulance to be called, but thankfully it proved to be only a whiplash-type injury after assessment.

After half time Alcester scored first as Steve Lowe showed great strength to power over despite the attention of several defenders. Harry Adams converted well from a difficult kicking position.

The home side increased their lead with a third try from a driving maul, which saw Will Kershaw crash over the line in possession, before Oscar Holland scored an good individual try which Adams again converted.

The visitors had the last laugh with their second try, but overall this was a good Alcester performance and win in which James Gionis was named man of the match.

Camp Hill U13s 5 Alcester U13s 15

ALCESTER made the short trip to Shirley and came away with a good win thanks to tries from Olly Hopkins, Will Harris and Toby Wilson.

Cameron Temple made two important tackles that were pivotal to Alcester’s win and which contributed to his man of the match accolade.

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