NORTH East Worcestershire Ravens 32, South Birmingham Hawks 3

NEW Ravens claimed local bragging rights over fierce rivals South Birmingham at Kings Norton on Saturday.

Up against a side formed by ex-Ravens players, they survived a concerted fight back record the win.

Ravens started nervously and after some fierce collisions in the opening eight minutes and Hawks opened the scoring with a try.

The Worcestershire side hit back immediately with a well-worked break from Brad Sinclair, which lead to a great score from Dave Pearson, which was safely converted by Dave Wimbury.

Ravens player/coach Rich Whitehouse found a gap to open his account for the game after stepping round the Hawks' fullback and Wimbury added the extras.

A tough scoreless 20 minutes followed, but a consistent unpredictable defence laid the foundations for a good assault of the visitors line.

Rich Whitehouse crossed the line the hard way this time, with three defenders hanging off him, but he pumped his legs to touch the ball down for his second try.

Wimbury converted to make the score 18-6 at half-time.

Ravens extended their lead when Lee Knight opened the second half with a superman try in the corner.

But they made hard work of the secondnd half with a series of penalties and basic mistakes caused by the tension of the fixture as things got heated.

The visitors clawed their way back to 22-18.

Ravens captain David Swaysland stopped the slide with another try but Hawks fought back with a converted effort off the back of the host's own mistakes.

Richard Whitehouse put the game to bed with a break on his own 40 metre line, before out manoeuvring the visitors full back and extending the gap to eight points with Wimbury's conversion.

Hawks made it a nail-bitter by exploiting a series of penalties before crossing the line and converting to bring the game back to the tight two point gap.

Director of Rugby Jason Spafford said: “Today’s win was about more than just a rugby match, it was about how we run our club and the victory was down to all the subs on the bench, water carriers, first aiders and everybody who works so hard to push this club forward.”