THE rain could not dampen Upton's spirits on Saturday as they took control over a youthful but promising Bromyard side in this North Midlands One derby.

UPTON 21pts, BROMYARD 12pts

From the kick-off Upton adopted their now customary tactic of putting the opposition under immense early pressure and within three minutes the good many Upton supporters had forgotten the miserable weather conditions.

The forwards drove the set scrum close to the Bromyard line from where number eight, Nick Bennett picked up the ball, drew the covering defence before slipping the ball to Matt Mitchell, who had the easy task to score an unconverted try wide out to take the score to 5-0.

With the slope and wind behind them, Bromyard started to put in some long kicks down field from ex-Upton player Piers Gaunt, but Upton defended stoutly ruling the lines-out and set scrums and it was obvious that the only way Bromyard was going to progress was with a well worked move or a mistake by Upton. And so it was after 20 minutes when fly half, Gaunt ran across the field before giving a long flat pass to full back Fletcher who joined the line at speed on Upton's 22 and scored an unconverted try for Bromyard's first points and 5-5.

For the rest of the half, the forays went up and down the pitch. Neither team was able to make chances count as the ball went slipping from grasp at critical times or fierce tackling, particularly by Upton's young back row of Bennett, Heath and Jones with winger Nigel Watson also snuffing out any sign of a Bromyard threat.

From the restart with the wind and slope in their favour, Upton again applied early pressure and Bromyard knew they were in for a difficult time.

Soon, John Kitchener, on for Charlie Parry at second row, was driving forward with three or four Bromyard players trying to stop him. When he was illegally halted, Rob Heeley punished Bromyard with the penalty kick to bring the score to 8-5.

Upton's tails were now up with all sections linking well. The front row of McCausland, Pickering and Hill disrupted their opposite numbers and took endless balls against the head.

Scrum half, Matt Mitchell linked well with number ten, Mark Tether who in turn went on some of his infamous darting runs. This relentless pressure was turned into points when Bromyard could hold out no longer as first Tether cut across field from 15 metres out to score an unconverted try and then Heeley kicked another penalty. The score moved to 16-5.

Bromyard tried to get back into the game by bringing their classy full back, Fletcher into play but his potential had been spotted and was well marshalled by centres Heeley and Caldwell. With ten minutes remaining, left winger Tim Dodge - on for the injured Paul Jauncey - linked well with Caldwell on halfway. After interchanging passes, Caldwell kicked ahead where the ever alert Tether was on hand to pick up and score his second unconverted try. The gap widened to 21-5.

With the win wrapped up, Upton sat back but Bromyard had the last word in the match when Fletcher evaded his minders and burst through to score. Gaunt ended the match by converting the try leaving the final score at 21-12.

Both sets of players should be congratulated for the way they handled the ball and the game in these 'unfamiliar' conditions.

Upton's first XV next league game is away to Woodrush on November 16 and then home to Cleobury on November 30.

- BROMYARD progressed to the second round of the Luctonians floodlit cup with a 10-8 victory over Llandrindod Wells.

A rare try from prop Malcolm Squire and a penalty and conversion by Reg Dixon were just enough.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Bromyard entertain Warwick in the Third round of the Powergen Junior Cup so a good crowd to support the team would be most welcome, kick off is at 2.30pm with England v New Zealand on the big screen.