Ledbury RFC and their Warwickshire opponents battled it out in an entertaining Midlands Three West (South) match at Ross Road on Saturday.

LEDBURY 15pts, SILHILLIANS 21pts

Silhillians sneaked a hard-fought win but the sporadic weather seemed to mirror Ledbury's play.

The home side were raring to go but 15 minutes of hard pushing in the scrum by the opposition took its toll and Silhillians took the opportunity to go three points in front.

This seemed to rouse the home side as the Ledbury pack started turning the screw with forwards Darren Handy and Bill Sparry particularly impressive. The line-outs went well with Handy finding veteran Al Dixon and skipper Matt Williams with apparent ease. A mistake by Silhillians centre let Barrett Price in for a try.

Ledbury continue to pressurise and were nearly rewarded when combative centre Russ Putland was held up over the line. From the resulting scrum No 8 Sam Scholefield went in under the posts.

The second half started poorly for Ledbury, two tries in quick succession followed from the whistle which saw Silhillians race into the lead.

If the half time talk didn't liven Ledbury up these two tries certainly did.

Ledbury spent the next 20 minutes camped on Silhillians' line and Ledbury managed to tie the scores with a penalty from Barrett Price.

Two injuries then followed, skipper Matt Williams had to leave the pitch with suspected broken ribs, closely followed by John Barrel. Darren Handy was then yellow carded for a professional foul and Ledbury were down to 14 men and really feeling the pressure.

Silhillians ended the game with a penalty and a drop goal to claim the points

Coach Rob Collins was obviously disappointed, but he knows there is plenty to build on for the remaining season and says it's still early days.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Ledbury play Leamington away in the Powergen Intermediate cup.

The next home game is on October 2 against Earlsdon.