Rugby union
Kings prevail in scrappy encounter

KINGS NORTON returned to winning ways in Midlands Three West (South) with a comfortable 29-8 victory over Ledbury on Saturday as they outscored their Herefordshire visitors by five tries to one.

The match was played at the Icknield Street home of Woodrush, who had kindly provided their pitch to allow Kings' junior section to prepare their Hopwood Park venue for their evening Spooktacular event, which meant Ledbury were making a second trip to Woodrush in as many weekends having been beaten there the previous Saturday.

It was far from a classic as both sides produced many unforced errors which led to phases of scrappy play, but Kings were always the likely winners.

Ledbury opened the scoring after a short while with an easy penalty following an illegal scrimmage move but this early setback seemed to spur the Hopwood side into life and soon speedy Jack Fairhurst crossed for the first of his three tries.

Fourteen minutes later Fairhurst added his second unconverted try and at this point the 'home' team appeared to be well in charge, however this was not to be as Kings were then caught on the hop and conceded a soft try to allow their visitors some hope.

Kings stumbled and stuttered before regaining the initiative with a superb try through Gareth Johnson which Chris Carlin converted to leave his side 17-8 up at the break.

From the restart Fairhust soon gained his hat-trick try with a nicely worked score and Carlin again added the extras to move the lead on to 24-8 as a bonus point was secured.

The remainder of the second period was similar to the first as it was littered with errors and poor play from both teams.

However, Tom Hatfield added some spice as he broke out towards the end of the game in typical fashion to score an unconverted try and extend Kings' deserved lead.

The victory leaves Kings sixth in the table, two places and two points below tomorrow's hosts Woodrush.

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