Norton pay price for slow start (From Redditch Advertiser)

Norton pay price for slow start

8:00am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Local Sport

Evesham 43, Kings Norton 17

KINGS Norton paid the price for a slow start as they lost to their Worcestershire rivals in the Midlands Division Three West (South) on Saturday.

The Hopwood-based side were left with a mountain to climb as they trailed 22-0 at half-time.

Kings forwards matched the home side in the set pieces but failed to make much headway going forward and were missing a couple of ball players.

As a result, high flying Evesham capitalised with speedy counter attacks scoring three tries, two of which were converted, plus an early penalty to leave Norton trailing.

The second period began with Kings on the attack and following a good period of early pressure, when Gareth Johnson might have scored only to be held up close to the line, Chris Carlin finally ghosted through to score and convert his own try.

This score boosted the visitors’ confidence and the game was on.

Minutes later Carlin converted a penalty following a desperate infringement by the home forwards.

Evesham re-gathered their composure and were soon back on the attack, scoring a try in the left hand corner following a long range kick and chase.

Then as Evesham attacked again a poor clearance out of defence from Kings fell into the hands of Evesham’s best outfield player, who raced through unopposed to score an easy converted try to extend their lead to 34-10.

Kings were spurred into immediate action from this error and powered forward to drive their hosts back.

They saw a good attack come to nothing when he ball was strangely taken back into the forwards from the wing with the line begging.

Kings maintained their forward pressure and eventually Johnson went over under the posts and Carlin added the extras but Evesham finally put the game beyond doubt when they raced away to score under the posts for a final converted try and a well-deserved victory.

Norton have arranged to use their near neighbours Woodrush grounds to play their next league match against Ledbury (3pm ko) as Hopwood Park is being prepared for next Saturday’s Spooktacular event.