Midlands Division Four West (South)

Coventrians 15 Alcester 20

In recent seasons Coventrians have been one of Alcester's bogey sides, but no longer as Alcester brought back home a hard fought victory.

Going up the hill Alcester were forced to soak up plenty of pressure but their defence was strong. Phil Birks led his pack well with George Green impressing on his return from a long term knee injury.

Injuries before the break to Birks and fly half Scott Carmichael could have disrupted Alcester and the home side to edged ahead with a late penalty, the only score of the first 40 minutes.

After the restart it was the hosts that started much better, extending their lead to 10-0 when they made the most of a lapse in the Alcester defensive line to score the first try of the game.

Soon after came the turning point, controversially the home side were awarded a second try, when few in the ground thought that the ball had actually been put down over the line. At 15-0 down Alcester could've folded but far from it, as the players saw as an injustice fired up the visitors further.

Playing their best rugby of the game the red and blacks fought back, when prop Jack Horton smashed over for his second try of the season. A Ben Hope conversion closed the gap.

Shortly afterwards skipper and man of the match Jack Green ran an unstoppable line from his outside centre position to score Alcester's second of the game, and when substitute Josh O'Connor kicked a long ball over the top, Alcester's chasers forced a mistake from the home side gifting winger Ollie Morrison a try to put his team in the lead for the first time in the match.

A penalty from a Hope soon after completed the scoring and finished off a fine away win for his team.

The King’s Coughton men have a break from league action next weekend and are due to visit Chaddersley Corbett from a friendly fixture.

Alcester 2nd XV 12 Coventrians 2nd XV 17

Alcester’s second string narrowly lost out to their visitors, in a good quality second XV game at King’s Coughton, despite being 12-7 ahead at the break.

Alcester were able to call on a full fifteen for the first time this season, mainly down to Director of Rugby Stu Whitehead’s efforts in cajoling players into pulling on the red and black shirt and his efforts are certainly working as the King’s Coughton men’s numbers are increasing each week.

Ironically it was the visitors who arrived short this week with only 13 players, but Alcester’s Toby Allen switched sides to even numbers up and had a very good game on the wing for the Coventry men, coming close to setting up a score for his side in the second half.

The home side took the lead early on through skipper Whitehead, which Jimmy Watson converted, before the experienced visiting number 8 took advantage of the steady ball that the passive scrums throughout the game ensured, to pick up from the base of one and set off an arcing run which saw him dive over in the corner. His kicker brilliantly converted from wide out.

On the stroke of half time Alcester regained the lead in controversial fashion. Coventrians were penalised for killing the ball at a ruck near the own line and although stand in referee, Andy Flynn, blew up for the infringement he was less than clear in his communication about who’s penalty it was and in the momentary chaos that ensued, Alcester’s Jamie Miller took full advantage to double his side’s try tally.

To the visitor’s credit, although aggrieved by the decision they channelled their frustrations into their game and were the stronger team in the second half. First their captain levelled the scores with his side’s second try, before they took full advantage of a mess from a home line out, near the Alcester line, to pounce on the loose ball for the winning score, which was unfortunate for the red and blacks as their line out had generally been one of the strong points in the game.

Despite the defeat this was a good effort from the home side, where ultimately they were beaten by the slightly more powerful and more cohesive visiting side, whose togetherness was unsurprising given they could count a set of four brothers amongst their ranks.

For Alcester, Tommy Wright made a first start in their colours for several seasons and impressed with ball in hand, whilst at full back Will Silk was faultless in defence and came out on top in several one on one situations with attackers, which otherwise would have led to further Coventrians tries.

Earlsdon Colts 5 Alcester Colts 21

Alcester recorded an impressive away win in Coventry, outscoring their hosts by three tries to one.

Man of the match Cian Allen scored two, either side of James Bates’ try with Harry Adams converting all three scores.

Alcester RFC School’s Tag Rugby Festival

Alcester hosted their annual primary school’s tag rugby festival with seven local schools taking part, alongside an Alcester club side.

On an excellent morning at King’s Coughton where the fine weather was only matched by the performances of all players taking part, the sides were separated into two groups with the winners and runners up proceeding to the semi-finals.