Birmingham CS 3

Kings Norton 13

WITH both Redditch and Stourbridge Lions going down to shock defeats Kings Norton regained North Midlands One top spot.

Norton made just one change to the side who were closely beaten by Stourbridge but still were made to work hard for their win.

Kings scrum half Dave Ellis took on the kicking role from Ken Whitehouse and put his side ahead after just three minutes with an easy penalty.

But Ellis was wide with his second and third long range attempts midway through the first half.

Norton's centre Matt Eagles scored the only try of the game with seconds to go before the half time whistle.

Left winger John Hefford made a strong run against the Civil's defence before releasing to Matt James who sliced through his opponents to put in Eagles under the posts. Ellis slotted the simple conversion to give his side a 13-point half time lead.

Kings Norton failed to score in the second half as they faced a downhill onslaught from their lowly placed rivals.

Ellis saw his three long-range penalty opportunities fall short whilst Civils added their own single penalty points to complete the scoring.

Coach Ian Jackson said: "We now have three Saturdays without league action which we'll use as preparation for an away encounter with dark horses Cleobury Mortimer on February 19."