DROITWICH turned on the power and style to win the North Midlands Shield for the first time in their history with a 29-13 success against Aston Old Edwardians at Stourbridge.

Aston had the better of the opening exchanges, putting pressure on the Spa line with a series of muscular charges.

The defence, however, was water-tight with Nick Godfrey in the thick of the action.

Fine tackling by centres Mark Strutt and Greg MacLeod ensured the scoresheet remained blank.

Droitwich opened the scoring when Alex Bull made inroads into the Aston 22 before a long pass found teenager Josh Skinner.

His neat dummy took him towards the line for Rob Poke to thunder over. Bobby Scott-Walker added the conversion and a penalty soon after.

Captain Phil Horton, immense throughout the match, then gathered the ball in his own half to charge forward, breaking several tackles, before out-pacing the defence to score under the posts.

Scott-Walker added the simple conversion to make it 17-0 but Aston hit back with a penalty on half-time.

The opening exchanges of the second period saw Aston come back powerfully and score a try, before a rare missed tackle by Droitwich let their opponents gain territory again and sneak over in the corner.

Matt Jupp then bulldozed forwards for Aston to stray off-side and Scott-Walker showed excellent composure to slot the penalty.

Not long after, strong running from Ian Young gave Scott-Walker another penalty attempt which he slotted.

Horton rallied his troops and again the Droitwich side raised their game.

Replacement James Thomas powered forward and the ball was fed back to Scott-Walker to land a drop goal.

Dean Goddard came off the bench and used his strength to good advantage, allowing Scott-Walker to kick another penalty to secure the trophy.