ON yet another sunny Saturday afternoon Upton returned to winning ways against Birmingham Exiles who were relegated last season.

UPTON 26pts, BIRMINGHAM EXILES 5pts

Exiles were formed by a merger of Birmingham City Officials and Birmingham Welsh a few years ago. Despite having played against both the old teams it was the first time that Upton had met the Exiles, a good test for them against a team who had played rugby at a higher level.

Upton played up the slope and against the breeze during the first half and once again it was a tough task for their forwards against some big opponents. The early exchanges saw Upton camped in the Exiles half as the forwards dominated the line-outs and the backs made good use of the ball to put Exiles under pressure.

The pressure had to tell and after 15 minutes Upton won the ball against the head five metres out and No 8 Matt Bookham picked up and charged for the line for the first try, unconverted

It was Exiles' turn to apply the pressure and with the use of the wind they kicked down field to gain position for their forwards to drive on. But when the ball was spun out to the backs, Brad Raymond, Alex Pimlow and Rob Heeley were there to snuff out the danger.

Upton increased their lead after 25 minutes after the backs stifled an Exiles attack. The ball was secured and fed out to winger Neil Caldwell who made 30 metres before slipping the ball inside to the supporting Raymond, who powered on to score under the posts. Heeley converted for 12-0.

Right on the stroke of half-time the Exiles scored their try when following an Exiles line-out, which Upton won, the ball went loose. Hooker Brain was fastest to react and scored near touch for 12-5.

At half-time coach Ronnie Hobbs made a positional change with hooker Paul Pickering moving to scrum half. He proceeded to give an assured performance in linking the forwards and backs.

With good use of the wind behind them Upton upped the tempo and put the Exiles under pressure. From a 22 drop-out Bookham caught the ball on the 10-metre line and went on a mazy run towards the posts. No one was able to stop him and he reached the line to score his second try which Heeley converted for 19-5

Upton were now in control and played some entertaining rugby as skipper Ollie Jones covered acres of ground to stifle any threatening attack.

Alex Pimlow was instrumental for Upton's fourth try when he out stretched the covering defence on the left hand side and then cut across field. After an 80-metre run he drew the last covering defender before he found supporting right winger Chris O'Neil willing and able to take the ball to the try line. Heeley converted for 26-5.

So Upton move to third place in the league table but travel to Tenbury tomorrow (Saturday) to play in the next round of the national knockout cup.

WORCESTER WANDERERS II 19PTS, UPTON II 0

ON the back of a couple of heavy defeats to Stourbridge and Woodrush, the priority for Upton's second XV was to compete and establish a base from which to kick start their season.

Upton's captain Ian Slocombe was not helped by the growing injury list but could at least welcome back heavyweights Hunt and Russell back fresh from first team duty and Paul Williams.

Two penalties gave Worcester a 6-0 half-time lead.

Upton started the brighter in the second half through their powerful front row, Andy Daniel taking ball against the head more often than not and Slocombe's kicking from the base of the scrum assured and accurate.

It was inevitable that this style of rugby would be high risk. So it was that Worcester had their chances to break and gain territory. But they never quite got beyond the Upton cover, although Upton did concede two more penalties that were again converted.

Upton attacked until in the final minute, when one reverse pass to far was intercepted by a substitute Worcester winger, who ran through for a converted try.

This week's ShandyBass man of the match was Rich Mills.