HAVING suffered a home defeat by five points to 13 at the hands of Luctonians seconds the previous week, Malvern's seconds travelled to Birmingham to take on Aston Old Ed's seconds in determined mood.

ASTON OLD EDWARDIANS II 13pts, MALVERN II 46pts

They bounced back in style to inflict on the Perry Barr outfit their heaviest defeat of the season so far.

With the hugely influential Vince Hill and Stuart Lucas both unavailable, Malvern's pack took time to settle, allowing Aston's pack to rumble forward and force the penalty to open the scoring.

Malvern gathered the restart and took the ball to Aston's 22, where the defenders got hands to the ball before knocking on. From the scrum, Lee Varney at eight popped to veteran scrum-half Dave Green. Taking the blind side, he drew the defence before releasing Dave Beech, who crossed in the corner.

A further infringement by the visitors allowed Old Ed's to regain the lead with a well-struck penalty, but by now Malvern's forwards had the measure of their opponents.

This provided a platform which their superior back-line used to full advantage, with centres Grant Fraser and George Roberts breaking the line to set up further attacking phases.

Under pressure, the home side sliced a clearance to touch. A well-worked short line-out set up the drive from which debutante hooker Paul Stevenson touched down to restore Malvern's lead.

At 10-6 up Malvern found another gear, forcing Aston on to the back foot, making good ground and creating the space for Stuart Clark to score a trademark try; gathering in the loose, breaking tackles and sprinting clear to extend the lead. Malvern winger Will Clee continued to impress, tackling strongly and running aggressively with the ball at every opportunity. His efforts were rewarded when receiving out wide, he backed himself to out-pace his opposite number and cruised over from 35 metres to give the visitors a 14-point cushion at half-time.

The second period saw Aston take the initiative with Malvern taking their turn to defend as the home side bore down on their line with a sequence of pick and drives.

Malvern's defence held firm as the Aston pack repeatedly attacked, until finally the line was breached for a converted try.

Under pressure, with Aston just one converted try behind, Malvern responded in style with a series of carries from their forwards driving into Aston territory before Beech sprinted in from his wing to touch down under the posts. Fly-half Adam Dixon added the extras.

With their tails up, Malvern's backs attacked with confidence. First, Fraser broke through to release full-back Ryan Milne who scored under the posts for a converted try, then Green, showing a sprightly turn of pace, took the ball from the base of a ruck to give Dixon another conversion.

With full-time approaching, Milne again joined the line at pace, creating the overlap and sprinting through to close on Aston's line.

A last-ditch tackle held him up short, but Dave Green in support was on hand to take the pop-pass before diving over to score his second and Malvern's eighth try of the match.