Evesham U-14 19pts, Shipston 39

SUNDAY saw a meeting of two evenly matched teams but a strong start by the home side took the visitors by surprise as they spread the ball out wide at the earliest opportunity to put Matt Phillips through on the wing to open the scoring after only two minutes.

Good play by both sides led to some fine open play and Phillips added to his tally to give the home side a 14-point advantage before he tweaked a hamstring and had to be replaced by Lewis Willets.

Evesham had to reorganise and Shipston slowly began to exploit the home side's weaknesses.

The normally invincible pack of Josh Greatrix, Russell Boyles, Adam Meadows, Mike Gander, Anthony Watts, Mike Ibb-otson, Matt Power and Ian Sime were finding the going tough in the line-out and the loose as the visitors ground out two tries to make it 14-12 at the interval.

The second half began with the visiting forwards asserting themselves on the game more and more and a well-worked move saw Shipston take the lead.

There was more misery for the Avonsiders when they lost Watts with a foot injury but the visitors sportingly reduced their numbers to even up the teams.

Gallant defence from Mike Diston, Ross Hayward, James Davis, Callum Lance, Sam Hopkins and player of the match Sime couldn't prevent another Shipston score.

Misery deepened when Diston was forced out of the action with a dead leg and the visitors now seemed unstoppable as they crossed for two more tries.

The home side never gave up and came up with an excellent move to put Ryan Clarke through to restore some respectability to the scoreline despite the Warwickshire winners sealing victory with a final try.

Evesham will have to step up a gear if they are to get anything from this weekend's game at Droitwich.