Ledbury II 12pts,

PERSHORE II 5pts

LEDBURY Second XV played host to this not so 'friendly' game against Pershore.

Pershore, who are in the Division One of the Merit Tables, had already beaten Ledbury earlier on in the season and were looking for the double.

Straight from the kick off it could be seen that this was going to be a hard physical game with Pershore playing the ball close to their forwards and charging through.

With only 10 minutes gone a slightly late tackle on hooker Russ Price saw him carried off with a broken leg.

Ledbury had to restructure their pack and brought on Toby Blandford to the flank and from the ensuing scrum were pushed off the ball and Pershore scored in the corner (unconverted).

From the restart a rolling maul was set up from Ledbury and started to drive the Pershore pack back but a frustrated Pershore prop took the law into his own hands and stamped on the Ledbury flanker off the ball. The referee had no hesitation in sending the prop off.

Pershore down to 14 men were still a force to reckoned with and continued too keep the pressure on the home side but some great defending, especially from the new flanker Toby Blandford who was voted captain's man of the match for a fine game, kept them out.

A break out from Ledbury saw Mark Gould cross the line for a try leaving the score 5-5 at half time.

The second half saw the same defensive commitment from Ledbury and should have seen quite a few tries from the home side but a comedy of errors ensued.

Ledbury attacked with a six man overlap only for the fullback to run in to a Pershore player and drop the ball over the line. Then the second row having plenty of space, passing inside to what he thought was his own player only to give the ball away to a retreating Pershore player, and the show went on.

Toby Blandford did eventually cross the line and the conversion was made by Rich Hall. The final score 12-5 to Ledbury.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Ledbury are at home to Camp Hill 2.30pm kick-off.

PERSHORE III 10pts,

LEDBURY III 8pts

THE home side started this game exceptionally well, the pack looked ominously good, driving Ledbury off their own put-ins.

The visitors, against the run of play, scored first, after the Pershore full back, Rick George had a clearance kick charged down, allowing centre Chris Stokes to go over for a try, however, the conversion was missed.

Pershore almost immediately replied, their centre scything through the Ledbury backs following a set piece. The conversion attempt was successful too.

Neil Blandford reigned supreme at the front of the lineout, winning all his own ball and stealing quite a bit of Pershore's too.

Once the Ledbury pack re-organised the front row, they began to secure good clean possession from the scrummage, Ledbury very nearly managed to score on several occasions, once when James Pugh was high tackled, after he had passed most of the Pershore defence, and again when scrum half Major Watkins' pass was intercepted, when he probably had the legs to go it alone.

Ledbury did however regain the lead with a penalty from fly-half Tim Riley just before half time.

In the second half, neither side were prepared to give an inch, but Ledbury again challenged bravely, with some bullocking runs from James Pugh which caused all sorts of problems for the home defence.

Pershore however sealed Ledbury's fate from a well-struck penalty early in the second half. Neither side was to score again, although Pershore probably went closest but Trevor Humphries last ditch tackle denied Pershore a try.

This was a particularly good performance from a very mixed bunch of players who really played for each other.