Ledbury suffer rare home defeat to Evesham (From Hereford Times)

Ledbury suffer rare home defeat to Evesham

7:00am Thursday 11th October 2012 in Rugby

Ledbury 22 pts Evesham 29.

LEDBURY suffered their first home league defeat in more than a year as Evesham maintained their perfect start to go equal top of Midlands 3 (West) South.

Ledbury were still without a number of key players, although Jock Welch and Paul Williams returned and new signing Iain Kennedy impressed on his debut.

But three of Evesham’s four tries came from missed tackles and Ledbury were punished for technical infringements. From one penalty, Evesham took a quick tap and scored a converted try after 12 minutes. Ledbury hit back with a trademark try from Welch and, although Evesham converted a penalty, Williams dived over after strong running from broken play. Fly-half Tom Biggs’ conversion put Ledbury 12-10 ahead but just before the break Evesham went ahead again with a converted try.

Poor tackling resulted in two tries for Evesham but Ledbury fought back as skipper Tom Dines finished a forward drive, converted by Dave Barley. Barley struck a fine penalty with the last kick of the game to ensure that Ledbury at least secured a losing bonus point.