NORTH East Worcestershire Ravens’ Open Age team had a tough battle on their hands with a home game against the double reigning champions Northampton Demons, eventually going down 54-12.

Ravens had a good squad of players available including some novices and new players to the club.

They were quick out of the blocks and got the first score on the card with a try from Liam Dunne, easily converted by David Wimbury.

But Demons were quick to respond, only to be held up by the home side’s strong defence.

The away side then hit top gear and ran in several tries in the second half.

Worcestershire improved as proceedings were coming to a close and finished with the last try of the game.

Captain David Swaysland ran in, this was converted byWimbury.

This game was the closet ever for Ravens against the Demons but director of rugby Jason Spafford was a disappointed with the result, if not the performance.

Ravens face South Birmingham Hawks away on Saturday.

The juniors headed to Telford on Sunday for the second South Midlands Development Day, which had more than 50 players of a wide variety of ages and abilities taking part.

The days are proving very popular with the players experiencing new types of training from different coaches and playing matches with a selection of other clubs.

It has now led to fixtures being arranged for a selection of Ravens age groups.

The club’s under-10s will be supporting the Four Nations double-header at the Ricoh Arena on November 5,walking out with the New Zealand squad as the match mascots.

The juniors are extremely excited about this amazing opportunity and tickets are still selling fast.

Anyone interested in joining the club to support the U10s can email Gail Fry at newravensrl@yahoo.co.uk Ravens juniors will be back at Kings Norton RFC for training on Sunday.

Training starts at 10.30am.