Kings Norton 18

Upton on Severn 15

TWO tries from King's Norton skipper Mark Waudby made sure his side got off to the best possible start in the North Midlands One.

The Hopwood based outfit had to start their league campaign on the second team pitch due to preparations for the next week's official switch on for the grounds new floodlights.

But the change in pitch didn't stop the Ash Lane men start the scoring through two penalties by fly half Ken Whitehouse.

Captain Waudby then scored a pushover try and Whitehouse added the conversion to take Kings men into a 13-0 lead with moments of the half remaining.

But Upton hit back and rocked the home side with a try on the stroke of halftime as the visitors gathered a poor clearance by Norton and set off on a race to the corner.

After the break the Kings were grateful to find Upton's kicker off form as he missed two penalties before reducing the deficit to 13-8 with an easy chance.

But an unlikely Upton victory was on the cards after a fumble by the Norton defence was seized on by the Severn centre who made no mistake to score under the posts.

That, coupled with an easy conversion, took the visitors into a 13-15 lead.

Kings Norton responded at the restart. Winger Matt Eagles split open the Upton defence, before feeding prop forward Richard Revell who in turn, passed to Waudby to steam over for his second and the winning try.

n Kings Norton's junior section got underway on Saturday morning with organiser Paul McGlynn very pleased with the first session.

Boys and girls aged 11-13 can turn up at the Ash Lane club at 11am every Saturday morning.