ON a tacky pitch, against the league's winless bottom club, Malvern never really got out of third gear for most of the game, yet still coasted to another two crucial points.

NUNEATON OLD BOYS 8PTS, MALVERN 37 PTS

The hapless Nuneaton pack felt the full force of Malvern's power up front when the visitors put in two enormous driving mauls. As this pattern of play continued, it was surprising that Malvern went over 20 minutes without opening the scoring.

This was mainly due to the ball being knocked on or final passes going astray, but the sizeable travelling support was finally rewarded when stand-off Dave King made a break, Steve Ott made good ground and the ball went swiftly along the back line for Tom Green to go over in the corner.

The score spurred Malvern on and King soon showed his class once again with one of his deceptive shimmying dummies, wrong-footing the Nuns defence to score under the posts and give Longley one of his easier kicks of the day.

Barnstorming centre Mark Eastwood, always guaranteed to take at least three defenders with him, charged through the centre, linking up with Julien Davies and Nuneaton conceded the penalty for Longley to slot home and suddenly Malvern were 17-0 ahead.

The Old Edwardians stand-off, whose kicking repeatedly got his side out of trouble, pulled back three points with a penalty before the break, but Malvern were well in control without breaking sweat.

It was more of the same when the second period began. Malvern camped almost continuously in the home half. From a catch-and-drive close to the line Davies went over before giving way to the seasoned but ever-youthful George Blakeway.

Green went on a dazzling run and looked to be in for his second score but passed inside to an absent friend instead. On the hour, King chipped ahead, the Malvern backs put Nuneaton under pressure and Nick Major claimed the five points.

Jon Pritchard, the young prop who had been causing some excitement with his second XV performances, came on for Lancett, who had not been his normal gazelle-like self, and immediately impressed, keeping the scrum steady and stopping the attempted wheel.

From a scrum, the ball went out on the short side to Ott and the move was repeated with five minutes to go as Longley added his name to the try scorers' roster.

Deep into injury time, with Malvern slackening off the pace, the home side made a spirited rally and put in a good scoring move, feading the ball wide to score.