ON paper this North Midlands Cup final always looked too close to call, and an absorbing, if unspectacular game went almost to the wire.

ASTON OLD EDWARDIANS 12PTS, MALVERN 9PTS

The two sides had near-identical records in the league, with Aston perhaps having had slightly the better of the two previous encounters. The Birmingham side came out strongly, putting Malvern on the back foot and took the lead after forcing a penalty in the seventh minute through Bradley. John Martin followed up well from the restart, turning possession Malvern's way.

The forwards drove on and forced Aston into conceding penalties for killing the ball, a feature of their game. Andy Longley was put in range and evened the scores in the 10th minute. King and Longley kicked Malvern into opposition territory, Eastwood took on an Aston defender who failed to release the ball and Longley put Malvern ahead on the quarter hour mark.

Both defences soaked up enormous amounts of pressure, Malvern being forced into rather more rearguard action as the Aston forwards drove on. Although the scrums were fairly even, Aston's back row repeatedly harried Malvern's base, spoiling the playmaking, and read the Malvern line-out well throughout the game. The result was that the Spring Lane outfit had to live off scraps for much of the time.

Wynne and Martin were prominent when half-chances arose and veteran prop Steve Cooper went on a rampage but half-time was reached without either side troubling the scoreboard further.

The beginning of the second half saw both sides trying to run the ball but a greasy surface and some hurried passing meant that errors were made. Aston reverted to a driving maul and held Malvern back in their own half, finally winning an equalising penalty. Every time Malvern broke out of defence, Aston tended to kill the ball in midfield, well out of kicking range until an infringement too far gave Longley the opportunity to put Malvern back into the lead.

Bradley then hit the upright as Aston again turned on the pressure, then Fleming and Longley made a saving tackle when a try looked certain. Aston tails were up and they once again drew level with a drop goal to set up a nervous last five minutes.

With 60 seconds of normal time remaining Aston were awarded another penalty, seemingly out of range, but a comment to the referee saw 10 metres more conceded and Bradley made no mistake with a kick to win the match for Aston to retain the trophy.

A disappointed Malvern side had to concede that their opponents deserved the result on the day.