DROITWICH turned in a fine performance to advance to the third round of the Midlands Intermediate Cup, defeating Bridgnorth 37-15 at the Memorial Ground.

Playing into the blustery wind in the first period, Droitwich failed to deal with the kick-off, the visitors gathered and scored under the posts with less than a minute played.

Droitwich then got in to gear and produced some good rugby with Alex Saddington and the robust Dean Godfrey driving up field.

The three-quarters ran strongly too with both Steve Duffield and Sean Walker making ground before Rob Dowdeswell broke clear and surged over to score.

Veteran outside-half Duncan Hughes, making a guest return from retirement, slotted the conversion, before giving the home side the lead with a penalty.

Despite the windy conditions, Droitwich played all the rugby, with good breaks from Steve Poke and Dylan Jones unfortunate not to produce further scores for the home side.

Sloppy defending allowed the visitors to advance up the field and a well-taken penalty drew the score level at the interval.

From the kick-off, Droitwich were awarded a scrum 40 metres out. Captain Phil Horton picked up the ball and charged up field. He beat the initial tacklers before showing a superb turn of pace to outstrip the cover defence and score under the posts. Hughes added the conversion.

Chris Hooper then added a long-range penalty to extend the advantage.

A number of errors saw Droitwich put pressure on themselves in their own 22, with some poor tackling allowing the visitors to sneak over and reduce the arrears.

Hooper caused problems for the defence with his strong running, along with Matt Barnes, whose pace was a constant threat.

It was from a Hooper break that Andy Manns made ground before off-loading a neat inside pass for Hughes to scorch over for a try, which he duly converted.

Matt Jupp then took the ball forward to link with James Protherough, whose excellent pass found Barnes, who sprinted 50 metres to score the best try of the game. As the match neared its conclusion, a break from Poke found the dangerous Hooper to feed Alan Simpson who sprinted over.

Hughes’ conversion concluded the scoring and ended a satisfying display from the Spa side.

Despite the blustery wind, they managed to play some excellent rugby with the midfield of Hughes, Hooper and Barnes causing Bridgnorth no end of problems.

Duffield said: “Some of our play was excellent.

“We have been working on keeping our game flowing and it showed.”