DESPITE a wet morning Upton entertained Ludlow in the third round of the national knock out cup on a dry afternoon with the pitch yet again giving a lot of grip.

UPTON 6pts LUDLOW 17pts

Ludlow arrived with a reputation for playing with strong forwards and a very good pair of half backs as they ride high at the top end of the division above Upton and having reached the last eight of the competition last year.

The first ten minutes were spent with both teams testing each other in the tight and loose and it also gave Ian Slocombe time to settle as Upton's scrum half following his promotion from the 2nd XV.

This period also saw the loss of Upton's flanker Barry Lancett with a broken arm and so causing Upton to make major changes to their plan of campaign. His regular interjections of encouragement and advice to both his team mates and the referees will missed for a while.

Despite this disruption Upton took the lead through a drop goal by Rob Heeley for 3-0.

Ludlow came storming back and used their half backs to work their way close to the Upton line.

A number of rolling mauls followed as Ludlow used blockers to shield their scrum half, with the famous name of Gareth Edwards, and this allowed him to squirm his way over the line for a try 3-5.

Upton raise their game when playing better opposition and within ten minutes they had regained the lead with another drop goal from Rob Heeley, fresh from his visit to South Africa, for 6-5.

On 30 minutes Upton were caught napping as scrum half Edwards nipped up the blind side of a loose maul to score another second try wide out and No 10 Mark Williams put over a good conversion for 6-12.

With a slight wind behind them in the second half Upton kept pounding away at the opposition and spent the majority of time in the Ludlow half with a series of rolling mauls and punts down field.

Twice Upton should have scored only for the referee to rule for a double movement and then with Upton moving hastily forward, a metre sort of the try line Ludlow managed to pull the maul down on the blind side of the ref.

On the hour Ludlow put the game further from Upton's reach with a try by David Watkins for 6-17.

Despite never giving up Upton kept their large contingent of supporters hoping for some more points but this was not to be Upton's day

Tthey can now get back to league business tomorrow (Saturday) with a visit to Birmingham Civil Service.