Pershore III 29,

Evesham III 17pts

THE weather did its best to make Saturday's encounter, undoubtedly the first of many this season, a scrappy affair.

Evesham sent over a large squad with many young faces and kindly lent one player to a depleted home side.

It was Pershore who got off to the best start as early pressure led to hooker Ian Brown falling on the ball to score.

With the ball more akin to a bar of soap a scrappy period followed but Evesham began to find their feet and equalised with a good try through the backs.

With Pershore dominating the scrum they were able to win plenty of quality ball and made it count with a try apiece for fly-half Dave Snell and No 8 Andy Duggan.

The second half was more of an end-to-end affair with the visitors regularly making good use of scrappy ball to pin their opponents back.

A well-worked try followed to bring them back into the game before Pershore pulled ahead again through prop Brian Avery.

Evesham scored again to make it tight before a try-saving tackle from skipper Iain Cother saved Pershore's blushes before they made the game safe through flanker Wayne Stam-mers.

Pershore are back in Merit Table action on Saturday when they entertain Upton at Piddle Park (3pm).