DROITWICH returned to winning ways as an excellent hat-trick by teenage scrum-half Josh Skinner handed them a 36-8 victory over Upton-upon-Severn.

It was an excellent all-round performance by the young Spa side and they hope it will kick-start their, so far, stuttering Midlands Two West (South) campaign.

After a winless opening to the season for both clubs, Upton had targeted the game as one they wanted to win to lay a marker down to other teams in the league.

However, despite competing for the first-half, Upton once again ran out of steam in the second as Droitwich scored three tries after the interval.

Droitwich had the better of the earlier exchanges and, after a strong run by Craig Mortlemans, hooker Rob Poke was on hand to drive up the middle. From the resulting ruck, Skinner darted round the side to race over and score, before adding the conversion.

Upton replied when Alex Pimlow slotted a routine penalty after Droitwich were caught off-side at the breakdown.

Then, five minutes before half-time, they took the lead when a flowing move saw Andrew Burns off-loading to fellow centre Pimlow, who out-paced the covering winger to score in the corner.

Droitwich replied with Steve Poke making an excellent break to feed the industrious Ian Young, before Skinner was on hand again to scorch over. Skinner again converted his own try to make the half-time score 14-8.

The second period saw Droitwich up their work-rate as Matt Jupp and Alex Saddington used their muscular presence to charge forward.

Alex Bull and Matt Barnes took the Spa side close, before Poke was hauled down inches short of the line, but the supporting Simon Pearce was on hand to dive over.

Mark Strutt then gathered the re-start and made an excellent break to link with Barnes to go over and put the result beyond doubt.

The final minutes saw Droitwich pressurise the Upton line, with Dean Goddard putting huge pressure on the visitors.

This enabled Skinner to gather the loose ball and dive over in the corner after Stu Brookes and Steve Greaves had forced a turn-over.