Bedworth 8 Bromsgrove 34

DAVE Clark put in a solid performance as Midlands Two (West) table toppers Bromsgrove RFC First XV won at basement side Bedworth.

The skipper scored two of Dean Ball's side's six tries and was involved in two of the other touchdowns.

Coach Ball was pleased with Clark's performance as well as other members of the side.

He said: "Dave did some good things and Ross Baxter was outstanding with his defensive work and Nick Copson played very well and he deserves a bit of credit."

The coach was also glad to get the potential banana skin of the bottom side out of the way and said the team had learned from their mistakes following their 22-22 draw at Barkers Butts last month.

"We all recognised that it was a place we could go and slip up like Malvern did," Ball added. "There were some good performances."

Town were without a few regular players, allowing coach Ball to bring in some of the younger talent.

Bedworth, however, were no pushovers, on a high after a recent home win over Malvern, and took the battle directly to Bromsgrove's pack.

The visitors' front row, which included veteran Jim Brearley celebrating his 49th birthday this week, were bloodied but defiant and set the foundations for victory.

The first of Bromsgrove's six tries came when youngster Craig Jesson broke through Bedworth's defence and played in skipper Dave Clark to score. Matt Birch converted the try.

Young centre Ben Copson finished off the second try after Frankie Hale had fed him a pass.

Bromsgrove, whose back row were generally impressive, were dominant in the line out through Jon Taylor and Tom Churchill.

Their third try was a typically powerful run by prop Steve Philips who received a popped pass from scrum half Nick Copson from a quickly taken penalty. Bedworth's only reply was a penalty to make the score 17-3.

With 20 minutes left Bromsgrove needed to make the victory emphatic and got a fourth converted try through Richard Stockholm via passes from Birch, Nick Copson and Clark.

Bedworth did manage to threaten Bromsgrove's try line several times and got an unconverted score when winger Phil Clamp chased down his clever chip forward.

Clark was instrumental in both of the final tries. First, he stole the ball from the maul to feed Mark Cornelius who set up Di Thomas to score. And he scored the last himself. Churchill secured the line out ball and fed Baxter to set up a driven maul, which Clark guided over the line.