REDDITCH 8, WOODRUSH 25

WOODRUSH kept their title hopes alive in the Midlands Division Four West (South) with a derby victory over Redditch on Saturday.

But they slipped to second in the table behind rivals Harbury, who recorded a bonus point victory over Alcester.

The away side got on the scoreboard early on through the reliable boot of Steve Smart.

The visitors then lost Josh Tomlinson from their front row after five minutes owing to a bizarre injury in the warm-up but they continued to apply pressure on the hosts and Smart kicked a second penalty.

Matt Playford then found a huge hole in the Redditch defence, making 20 metres before feeding player/coach JonFord, who slid in under the posts.

Shortly after the visitors put together several phases of play and Ed Lerna touched down wide on the right.

A brief spell of pressure from the hosts side then resulted in a Tom Saddington penalty kick to get them onto the scoreboard.

But Woodrush responded immediately and a pass worthy of an international scrum half from lock Mike Loughrey put the excellent Lerna in from the left wing again to fired the away side 25-3 ahead.

Redditch suffered another setback when Stan Hull had to be taken to hospital with suspected rib injuries also it was revealed there was no serious damage.

But the Kingfishers battled back gamely and dominated for large periods of the remaining match.

They put Woodrush under massive pressure on their scrummage ball and tackled ferociously to prevent the visitors from scoring again.

With five minutes to go in the second half, Redditch took advantage of Woodrush’s ever more desperate efforts to secure a bonus point when Bryn Williams powered over to score a try.

Redditch still need two wins to make sure any worries of being sucked into a relegation battle.

They are fourth from bottom with six-point lead over Alcester who occupy the spot in the drop zone.

Redditch tackle struggling Alcester away on Saturday (2.15pm).