Old Centralians 61pts, Evesham 31

EVESHAM travelled to Gloucester for Saturday's hastily arranged friendly against opponents who reside in the South West leagues - three sections higher up the ladder than the visitors.

The Avon Street side showed a few changes to their regular line-up but were soon in the thick of the action and had crossed for two tries inside the opening six minutes.

Matt Grove and Will Bailey were the players to breach the home line and a couple of conversions from Mike O'Loughlin gave Evesham a 14-point cushion.

Centralians, though, were a massive side and soon started to make big inroads into the Eve-sham defence and tries weren't long in coming despite stalwart defensive play especially from Bailey, Jim Moulton, and youn-gster Sam King.

Adam Huttlestone was giving a majestic performance at full back and he cruised in for his side's third try.

Evesham's hopes of causing an upset were dashed early in the second half when OCs continued with the powerful driving play and rattled in a few more tries.

With Tim Webb and Dave Scott still winning good line-out ball, Evesham were still getting enough ball to attack. And, from one such forward foray, Bailey crashed over for his second try.

Evesham's final score followed a lovely break from centre O'Loughlin who was taken out as he attempted to re-gather an astute chip and a penalty try was awarded to round off a fine display against superior opposition.