ALCESTER suffered a 15-5 defeat at the hands of Yardley and District in the Midlands Junior Vase Second Round on Saturday.

The home side welcomed back veterans Andy Speirs and Dave Marriott into their squad, along with Ed Benskin, fully recovered now from his early season injury.

They took the lead after 20 minutes when scrum-half Robbie Parker cut through the visitors defence to score the first try of the game.

The visitors from Birmingham began to exert pressure on the home side’s set piece and with Alcester’s scrum creaking on their own line, the referee awarded a penalty try to give the visitors a 7-5 lead at half-time.

Going down the hill and with the wind behind them Alcester remained favourites to win this game and to progress into the next round.

CLOSE Winger Ryan Clark came close to restoring his team’s lead when he chased through a kick over the top only for the ball to be knocked on with the try line beckoning.

But too many unforced errors and a catalogue of penalties awarded against Alcester allowed the visitors to get a foothold back in the match, and it was from a penalty given away in their own 22 yard area that the visiting pack drove over to score.

The tight game suited the visitors and they extended their lead with three points from yet another penalty conceded by Alcester.

Late in the game a forward pass denied the home side a score, and despite a man of the match performance from second row Louis Smith, Yardley and District held on to win the game comfortably.

Alcester are back in league action next week when Coventry side Keresley are the visitors to King’s Coughton (2.15pm ko).

COLTS SHINE The seconds recorded a 26-5 win over Camp Hill’s thirds on Saturday.

A team packed with players making the step up from the colts and veteran Andy Flynn, who came out of retirement to play, made a strong start.

Former Alex Chiles, playing only his second game of senior rugby, followed up last week’s man of the match debut with an assist for flanker Darren Gwillym’s try. Josh Godson, 17, then converted the score.

After a period of pressure the Camp Hill pack rolled over for a try, from a caught and driven ball at the line out, to leave the half-time score at 7-5 in the home side’s favour.

But Chiles crossed for Alcester’s second score, which Sean Sudworth converted, before quick tries for Alastair Hooper and Chiles finished off Camp Hill.