MALVERN took the honours in a thrilling top of the table encounter at Spring Lane on Saturday.

MALVERN 21pts, KENILWORTH 19pts

Looking sharp from the off, Malvern had most of the early play and probed the Kenilworth defence repeatedly. Steve Taylor, in tremendous form again, was instrumental in setting up plays, with George Blakeway at scrum half directing his forwards.

Gareth Richards and Richard Fleming combined to take the ball to the visitors' line, but a knock on spoiled a scoring opportunity. Malvern were full of running, but it was Kenilworth who took the lead against the run of play, breaking for Crafer to score and Kendall to convert in the twelfth minute.

Malvern went back on the offensive, winning a penalty, which Longley put over, but Kenilworth again stretched Malvern's defence to score again in the 17th minute, Middleton running in and Kendall taking the extra two points.

Malvern again took control and Longley dropped a goal to pull back another three points and the home side dominated the rest of the half. Ben Hughes and Graham Ward gave the Warwickshire side's defence a tough time but several promising attacks broke down at the last pass or with a knock on.

The second half began with Malvern once more in control and starting to play with much more fluidity. The forwards put on a display of handling of which the backs would have been proud, Cooper and Taylor showing silky skills

On a third phase play, Kiwi stand off Will Smart fed to Andy Longley, who in turn put Gareth Richards through. He looked to have been caught but the police officer's "long arm of the law" stretched out and grounded the ball for a fine try. Longley's conversion took Malvern to within a point of the Kenilworth total.

Tails up, Malvern went on the rampage, Longley joining the line and putting Richards away to split he defence and put skipper Dave Irish over to take the lead, on the hour. With a Longley penalty two minutes later after a blatant offside from the Kenilworth lock, Whitehurst,

Malvern were eight points up and looked to have the game in the bag. However, the lively visiting backs had other ideas and with five minutes to go Middleton scored in the corner to put them babk in it.

This set up a tense final period, the referee adding eight minutes of injury time and Kenilworth moved up a gear, taking a scrum against the head and stealing a Malvern line out. In the last minute, the visitors won a penalty 45 metres out to give Kendall an opportunity of winning the match, but to the relief of the watching crowd, he was off target.

The win took Malvern into second place behind Derby on point's difference and delighted Director of Rugby David Robins said:. "This was one of the great wins against a very good side. To turn a 14-3 deficit into a victory shows the level of commitment shown by our players, their 100 per cent effort making it three wins out of three.

" James Daniell was magnificent in the scrum, Steve Taylor was a human dynamo and the experience of George Blakeway, Gareth Richards and Andy Longley was crucial. Will Smart showed some deft touches for such a young man at fly half whilst centre Graham Ward made an impact until his unfortunate shoulder injury. Our line out and scrimmaging was extremely good and the result sent our supporters home happy.

" We now face a tough test away to Nuneaton OEs next week, hopefully with more squad players back from injury."

Th Kenilworth match was generously sponsored by F L Cox and Sons.