Rugby union
Kings are on the march

KINGS NORTON secured a hat-trick of Midlands Three West (South) victories as they enjoyed a 10-7 victory over visitors Southam on Saturday which was more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.

The outcome was the perfect way for the Hopwood Park outfit to begin the second half of the league campaign and cements fifth place in the table heading into tomorrow's match at Coventry outfit Pinley.

There was a poignant feel to Saturday's match as the occasion had begun with a one-minute silence before kick-off in remembrance of David Salisbury, a former Norton stalwart since the late fifties who had passed away just before Christmas after a long battle with cancer.

David had lived in Tintagel in Cornwall for a number of years and at the time of his death was the first ever president of Camelford Rugby Club, with whom he had been very involved since that club's inception.

A contingent of Kings Norton life members were due to attend his funeral in Bodmin this (Friday) afternoon.

From the kick-off the Hopwood Park men took this game to their opponents and spent most of the first half in Southam territory.

The first opportunity to put points on the board came after ten minutes but an accurate long range effort from Ken Whitehouse dropped just short of the crossbar.

Panic reined for a few moments as the ball was fumbled in goal but a clearance kick to touch relieved the pressure on Southam.

Kings worked the lineouts well but too often their attacks were broken down by good defence or weak passing, whilst the game was also constantly interrupted by niggling injuries to the visitors which disrupted any continuity of play.

Kings' lighter pack moved the ball around at every opportunity but the home side failed to capitalise on their considerable possession and Southam's stoic defence kept Kings at bay for almost 20 minutes before Whitehouse made no mistake when he was presented with the simple conversion of a superb try finished off by Jack Fairhurst, whose speed took him along the right wing to beat the final defender before racing around to touch down under the posts.

This score had come from a sustained period of pressure from the more mobile Kings forwards and, following a successful third phase of play out on the left side of the pitch, the ball was swiftly fed out along the line where centre Yasin Aychin made the crucial break before feeding Louis Stelling and his pass to the looping Fairhurst took him over for a great try.

Kings failed to take full advantage of their first half superiority though and no further scoring opportunities came and then, with less than a minute of the period remaining, Kings paid the price for a rare moment of sloppy defending when Southam made the most of an opportunity to attack the Kings line.

From a lineout on the left the ball was rapidly fed to Southam's outside centre who took the ball on the burst to beat a couple of flailing tackles to cross under the posts for a converted try and level the half time score at 7-7.

The second half began in similar fashion with mainly Southam defending well against Kings' attacking play. One burst by Whitehouse after good work by Kris Fenn resulted in a great scoring chance for Gareth Johnson but the difficult final pass was fumbled with ten metres to go.

Halfway through the second period coach Ian Jackson rang the changes for the hosts and Ben Boyce replaced the hardworking Mark Waudby, Marcus Bender replaced Chris Hands and Chris Carlin took over from Rob Neighbour.

These changes injected both pace and strength and created the impetus for Kings to mount considerable pressure from where a final penalty opportunity came and Kings won the game as Whitehouse slotted over the penalty to win a closely fought game by just three points.

KINGS' second string were beaten 48-8 at home by the well drilled and experienced Bromsgrove Veterans.