Droitwich 15
Leamington 14

Midlands Division Three West (South)
A LATE penalty by Matt Blackmore saw Droitwich edge home 15-14 in a nervous Midlands Division Three West (South) affair with Leamington at the Glyn Mitchell Memorial Ground.

The victory saw the Spa side move into second place in the table. The home side started brightly with good line-out ball being used intelligently by their three-quarters. An intelligent line-out by Ross Coombes linked with Steve Poke to throw a long pass to James Shewell who scorched over in the corner. Duncan Hughes kicked an excellent conversion.

Leamington hit back strongly and looked more likely to score in the latter parts of the first-half. After a period of good defence by the home side, Leamington managed to breach the Spa defence and go over to take the lead into the interval.

The second period saw Droitwich up the work-rate with veterans Greg Garfield and Nick Godfrey being especially effective in securing good possession, before the former was harshly sin-binned for an offence at the maul.

Jon Andrews and Phil Horton were combining well to make Droitwich's line-out particularly effective. Quick ball secured by James Davies was released to the three-quarters.

Blackmore threw a fine pass to winger Craig Mortlemans, who accelerated well to restore Droitwich's lead.

Droitwich began to dominate territory, which resulted in a string of penalties, but Hughes was off target.

The game was still in the balance when the home side were awarded another penalty. Blackmore took over the kicking duties and made no mistake to give Droitwich a two-score lead.

Leamington rallied and crossed for a second converted score to narrow the gap to one point but, as they landed the conversion, the final whistle went to leave Droitwich clinging on to claim the points.