UPTON travelled north through a mixture of weather conditions - rain, wind and sun in order to reach the re-claimed land of the treatment works in North East Birmingham which Yardley & District now claim as their home.

YARDLEY 23pts, UPTON 7pts

The game was played in dry weather but with a strong diagonal wind against which Upton played in the first half. Spectators were treated to a boring time as Upton worked the ball upfield against the wind and Yardley kicked it back.

Number ten Cox kicked for distant position and landed three penalties leaving Upton, with six changes to the team from the previous week, pinned back for long periods leaving the half time score at 9-0.

With the wind now in their favour Upton started the second half on all out attack and they camped in Yardley's territory for lengthy periods, won plenty of line out possession but were unable to penetrate Yardley's defence.

From one attack on 60 minutes Upton's backs fumbled the ball, Yardley right winger Gleeson gathered the ball and raced away to beat the covering Upton defenders to score a converted try in the corner against the run of play making the score 16-0.

Upton went back on the attack again but still they had no luck as Yardley would gather the ball and clear downfield at every chance. From one such clearance Upton were penalised on their 22 metre line for their defenders going 'over the ball'.

Momentarily Upton went to sleep when they turned their backs on the ball and headed for the posts as they saw kicker Cox approach the penalty mark again. Cox saw the defence was open, kicked to himself and raced over to score in the corner. Despite the head on wind Cox was successful with the conversion and the score was 23-0.

Upton started to make better progress when they shuffled their players, brought on fresh legs and played with more determination. The changes paid off as they worked the ball to Yardley's line and scrum half Matt Mitchell was on hand to dive over under the posts after 75 minutes. Rob Heeley converted easily making the final score 23-7.

With the referee calling time four minutes early, Upton were left in the cold.

With an away cup match at Fiveways tomorrow (Saturday), there is still much to practice and to improve on.