Alcester President's XV 5

Alcester Chairman's XV 0

THE Boxing Day honours went the way of the President's side who narrowly took the spoils at the end of a hard-fought entertaining game.

Club captain Nick O'Connor took charge of the Chairman's side for the first time, with former skipper Andy Flynn running the President's side for the second successive time following last season's 7-5 defeat.

Each side had a mix of 1st and 2nd team players together with former players and guests.

The Chairman's side started down the slope in the first half and enjoyed the better of the territory for the opening exchanges. But their aggression in attack was met by equal fire in defence as both sides forgot their club loyalties for the day to ensure a proper game of rugby ensued.

Although the opening period belonged to O'Connor's side it was the President's XV who had the best scoring chance. Darren Gwillym landing his penalty kick just short of the posts after the men in red had strayed offside at a ruck.

The second half saw a number of changes with nearly 40 players used. The President's side settled the better and they finally broke the deadlock when scrum-half Ollie Chesterton took a quick tap penalty just inside his opponent's half, fed Scott Carmichael who made ground before slipping the ball to hooker Brett Allard to cross wide on the left. Gwillym just missed the conversion attempt.

With 15 minutes remaining, the Chairman's side attempted to lift their performance to get back into the game. But despite the determination of the likes of Mick Weaver and Steve Lunn up front, who took the game to their opposite numbers, superb defence by the opposition, predominantly Allard and Carmichael, kept them at bay.

Both sides can be rightly proud of an excellent game, which was in no way just an afternoon friendly between two sides going through the motions.

For the chairman's side, Weaver played with his usual aggression while Mika Serevi showed great pace and power out wide to cause his opponent's constant problems.

For the president's side Carmichael had his usual powerful game and Allard gave up his usual centre berth to return to the pack and the heart of the front row.

Opposite scrum halves Dom Skinner and Chesterton were named men of the match and victorious skipper Flynn was presented with the new Boxing Day trophy in a busy clubhouse by chairman Andy Miller to round off an excellent day for the King's Coughton club.