CLEOBURY Mortimer climbed up to fourth in the North Mids (South) One table with an impressive 19-8 win over Stourbridge Lions.

The vice presidents were still polishing off their port following a three-course lunch in the social club when Cleobury opened the scoring.

Almost from the kick off, centre Steve Morris put winger Kevin Shields in at the corner and he crossed the line unopposed.

With a wide angle and from the wrong side for a right-footed player, Julian Harding's conversion failed, but the hosts didn't have to wait long for their next points. Having detected a weakness down the visitor's right flank, Cleobury attempted to exploit it and pressured their opponents mercilessly.

After only five minutes another concerted attack saw Paul Hulland emerge with the ball to go over when the forwards cleared and this time Harding added the extras.

Still the home side were not finished and after a penalty kick for the corner they shunted the Stourbridge scrum off their own ball as No 8 Hulland picked up to plunge over again.

With Harding's kick again finding the target, the home side were 19-0 up inside the first 15-minutes and cruising to a good win. Stourbridge managed to steady the ship until the break without further mishap, but the home side looked forward to the prospect of playing down the hill in the second period.

The first score after the break saw Stourbridge's fly half reduce the deficit with a short-range penalty, which appeared to give them heart.

They pressured the Cleobury line for long periods gaining confidence, but the defence held firm thanks to the excellent training of coaches Tony Heap and Willie Bache. It was late on when Stourbridge finally got their consolation score when their winger dotted down in the corner.

But without the conversion, two scores were still required to win, so Cleobury were able to hold on for their second league victory of this season.