By Alan Poole, Coventry Telegraph.
February 4 2015

...hammer-and-tongs battle

Old Wheatleyans slugged their way to a 17-10 win against a Southam side who had to console themselves with their sixth losing bonus point of the campaign.

The visitors had something rather better in mind when they seized the early initiative, Pete Burnell’s 60-metre interception run carried on by Jay Etherington who sent winger Sam Bench between the posts to grant Will Grindal a simple conversion.

Grindal’s penalty nudged the lead into double figures but Wheats hit back before the interval as scrum-half Richard Lowe dummied his way to the line and Langton added the extras.

Wheats took that momentum into the second half, Dean Beauchamp’s excellent offload sending Josh Loach-Smith through for another converted try. A penalty gave them some breathing space and although both sides went at it hammer-and-tongs for the rest of the game they couldn’t conjure up any additional scores.

Bolstered by the return to active service of a string of regulars – Kieran Pitman, Matthew Carrier, Dave Weston, Andy Solomon and Craig and Andy McGrory – Dunlop tamed Woodrush 17-8 to leapfrog into pole position.

With the strong wind at their backs, the home side made the breakthrough in a predictably tight midfield battle when veteran prop Martin Owen capped a forward surge to the corner, Dave Weston converting from a difficult angle before adding a penalty to make it 10-0 at the break.

It was equally well-contested in the second period, particularly when Woodrush pegged back a Josh Tomlinson penalty and a Titch Thomas try, but Andy Solomon dashed through for the clincher and Weston again obliged.

Bedworth blew their opportunity to move clear in the title race when they crashed to a 47-0 defeat at Ledbury.

Having beaten the Herefordshire side 30-17 at Smarts Road in October it was a shock setback for the men in green but coach Carl Rogers was frank enough to concede: “The better team won – they knew how they had to play and took the game to us”.

“Our lads haven’t got off the coach today and we need to put things right on the training field.”

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