ALCESTER suffered a 24-3 defeat to second-placed Pinley despite the Coventry club being restricted to 14 players on no less than three occasions.

But such were the windy weather conditions that Alcester could take little advantage as Max Biltcliffe could only convert one penalty.

Alcester were on the defensive for much of the opening quarter and did well to hold the ball up and prevent an early try when Pinley got over the line.

Jamie Harland was taken out in the air by a no arms tackle but the ref deemed it more of a timing issue than it was reckless and awarded Alcester a penalty without any other sanction for Pinley.

Biltcliffe's penalty struck the posts but dropped the right side of the crossbar to give Alcester the lead for the only time in the game.

Pinley attacked from that point and ran three quarters of the pitch to score in the corner.

The first yellow card followed but the resulting penalty hit the posts and failed to make it over the crossbar.

Alcester were then plagued with handling errors and failed to capitalise on the extra man.

Another yellow followed for retaliation after Jamie Clarke had produced a hard hitting tackle but Alcester still trailed 7-3 at half time.

Pinley upped the pace after the break and produced three more tries in a 20 minutes spell before going down to 14 men for a third time.

Alcester's second XV secured a late 29-22 success over Stratford side Shottery.

Louis Hopkins supplied the opening try for Alcester followed by his step dad Scott Carmichael while Chris Howell added a penalty and conversion to put the red and blacks 15-5 in front by half time.

Joe Sharper snapped up a third try as Alcester looked set for a comfortable afternoon but Shottery staged a comeback

They clawed the score back to 22-17 and it required a second Carmichael try to clinch victory with Luke Spencer converting.