Alcester 13 Coventrians 3
Midlands Four West (South)
ALCESTER extended their winning league run to 11 matches on Saturday but were made to work hard against a physical visiting side who would have left Kings Coughton feeling a little aggrieved they had not at least got a share of the spoils from this fixture.
The home side started with the slope at their back, but they were on the back foot for most of the opening quarter as Coventrians held the upper hand for this period.
On three occasions the visitors’ big forwards broke through an unusually sloppy home defence, only for clear try-scoring opportunities to be wasted as the last pass did not go to hand or scrambling home defence managed to thwart the opportunity.
Despite being on top, all the visitors had to show for this period was a 3-0 lead as they chose to go for the posts from one of the penalty opportunities which were awarded to them.
The Coventry side thought they had scored a try midway through the first half when one of their wingers raced Alcester full back Will Silk to a ball that had been chipped ahead, but the referee adjudged Silk to have got his fingertips to the ball first over the line and no try was awarded, despite the protests of the visiting players and small band of supporters near the incident.
Once they had stopped the string of penalties against them slowly, Alcester started to get into their game, although it was still somewhat against the run of play when they opened their account through a classic forwards try.
Hooker Tom Harris accurately found his jumper, Phil Birks, at the lineout and the Alcester pack drove on at the maul which had formed some 15 metres out.
As the home forwards advanced, the Coventrians defensive maul splintered somewhat, allowing the home pack to crash over the line, with Harris in possession of the ball at the back of the drive to score the try. From wide out, Max Biltcliffe narrowly missed his conversion attempt.
Turning around at half time, Alcester knew they had to up their game, particularly as they were now against the elements, although the already greasy conditions were further dampened by the rain and hail downpour just after the break which meant the likelihood of their normally fluent back line being able to get into any sort of quick handling game was remote.
The Kings Coughton men did begin to get the upper hand in the match and, for the first sustained period, it was the visitors who were being forced to cling on and they began to concede penalties in doing so.
Fly half Biltcliffe was narrowly wide with one penalty attempt presented to him as the referee lost patience with the visitors’ defence and yellow-carded one of their players for persistent infringement.
This proved to be a costly sin-binning, as the home side scored eight points whilst the visitors were a man down.
Alcester’s second try came from a quickly taken free kick by Robbie Parker after the Coventrians pack had infringed at a scrum.
Parker fed replacement loose head Kyran Flynn, who had come on for Tommy Wright at half time, and the big prop powered his way to the line from ten metres out.
At one stage it looked like the visitors had stopped him but, despite being isolated, he did well to stay on his feet and drive through the attempted tackles to crash over the line for an important score for this side. Biltcliffe hit the upright with his conversion attempt.
With Coventrians still down to 14, another penalty was awarded to Alcester and, although Biltcliffe once again hit the post with his kick, this time it was against the inside of the upright and it dropped nicely over the bar for another three points for the home side.
The final quarter of the game was an even affair again, although it was the visitors who had the best chances, including right at the death as they searched for what would have effectively been a losing bonus point score.
They managed to get over the line, but determined home defence by Alcester held them up.
Right wing Tom Goddard was named Alcester man of the match by coach Keith Beech, this time mainly for his defensive involvement as he let very little past him or through him despite being up against a much bigger and more powerful set of visiting backs.
Alcester’s next league outing is on Saturday, February 11 when they face a tricky looking fixture at fourth placed Coventry Welsh, who were edged out 39-32 at Kings Coughton earlier in the season.
Before that, Alcester host the University of Birmingham medical students, ‘The Medics’, in a friendly on Saturday (2.15pm).
Coventrians 2nds 7 Alcester 2nds 58
ALCESTER 2nds teamed up with players from Wellesbourne to make the trip to the Black Pad to ensure a full side of 15 players could be fielded, with both sides individually struggling to make up the numbers.
The combined team claimed a thumping ten-try win, with seven of the scores coming from the Wellesbourne players.
From the Alcester contingent, Matt Alderman scored two tries and teenager Oscar Holland a superb individual score to round off another good day for the Kings Coughton club.
