Pershore III 45pts,

Ledbury III 10

PERSHORE made a swift start in Saturday's Merit Table game against a youthful visiting side.

The hosts were camped on the opposition 22 in the early stages and quick ball through the hands led Alan Jenkinson to touch down.

Straight from the restart Pershore pushed forward with the pack delivering regular ball and skipper Iain Cother plucked a high pass out of the air drew in a couple of players and popped the ball inside for the charging Carl Wilkins to touch down.

Frustration led to a minor altercation causing the referee to sin-bin a player from each side but Pershore settled quickly and a forward move led to No 8 Wayne Stammers scoring under the posts with Dave Snell converting.

Pershore found themselves 24-0 up on the half-hour when inside centre Wilkins scored another fine try.

However, Pershore suffered a severe blow when second rower Steve Eades was sent off five minutes before the half-time for what the referee described as foul play.

The referee announced that the scrums would be uncontested due to a Ledbury prop being injured but, wishing to keep the game competitive, Pershore lent the opposition a front row player.

The second half saw Ledbury come more into the game despite prop Brian Avery crossing for another home score.

Ledbury heads never went down and their pack worked hard to pin Pershore back in their own half for long periods of play.

Their reward of a try came following a driving maul but Pershore were quick to respond and vice-captain Pete Reynolds broke free to score under the posts leaving Snell, who finished with five successful conversions out of seven, to add the extra points.

This still wasn't enough to break Ledbury's spirit and they responded by setting free their young winger who ran a wide loop to score in the corner.

Pershore finished the game playing the style of rugby that they are getting used to, keeping the ball alive, not going to ground and great support play from the whole team led to the ever improving Alex Barry scoring the last try of the game.