BROMSGROVE bounced back to take over top spot in Midlands One West this week thanks to a stunning 61-14 success over local rivals Stourbridge Lions.

Scrum half Adam Whiteman secured a hat-trick as Bromsgrove breezed their way to a nine try spree.

Bromsgrove had been boosted after title rivals Dudley Kingswinford had lost 22-20 to close neighbours Old Halesonians the previous night.

Added to that, fellow frontrunners Newbold could only scrape a 10-8 success at Hereford which meant they were unable to obtain a bonus point.

Bromsgrove head coach Dan Protherough quipped: "We only needed Newbold to lose for a perfect weekend!

Ironically Lions had taken a 7-0 lead with a converted try, but once Whiteman opened his account there was only ever going to be one winner.

Bromsgrove No.8 Drew Harper also notched a couple of tries and would have been on course for a hat-trick himself but Whiteman stole his thunder by nipping in to pinch the ball from the back of a scrum as Lions were being shoved backwards over their own try line.

There were further tries from centres Ed Spalding and Tom Millen, plus prop Ethan Priest and fly half Will Harris who also thumped over eight conversions for good measure.

Protherough has been quick to keep his player's feet on the ground and insisted: "It's far too early in the season to start thinking about the title. Wait until there are five or six games to go before we start looking at that.

"But what we must do is look to improve the quality of our performance every week.

"Newbold did well to get a win at Hereford, we only just managed to win there ourselves!

Bromsgrove travel to Sutton Coldfield this Saturday and Protherough confirmed: "It was the scene of one of our worst performances last season and we'll be looking to put the record straight.

"Will Harris could be a doubt with his dodgy knee, but apart from that, we picked up no major injuries".