ON a pitch that had seen better days, baked solid by the driest Autumn in decades and under the flight path to Birmingham Airport, Ledbury achieved their first away league win of the season.

BIRMINGHAM EXILES 12pts, LEDBURY 32pts

A gritty performance was required against a Birmingham side who seemed more interested in foul play than playing rugby.

Ledbury kicked off and the tone of the day was set by Will Delamore giving the Birmingham ball catcher an earlier wake up call, knocking the ball from his hands giving Ledbury a scrum. From the scrum fly half Bob Collins sent Dave Pickering, who has just returned from his native New Zealand, through on a slick scissors move. After constant infringing by Birmingham the referee belatedly awarded a penalty to Ledbury, which Barrat Price kicked over.

From the restart Ledbury broke down the centre of the park, before a clean break from Peter Elkington put right-winger Mark Gould in for the first try of the day. Price converted.

Birmingham were given a boost when they got a converted try back almost immediately.

With only a slender lead Ledbury re-established themselves with a charging run from Tara Barnett who set Collins up for his first try of day. Price converted.

This was swiftly followed when Elkington put Gould in for his second try. Gould looked certain to get his hat-trick before the half hour but the ball failed to reach him and this triggered an ugly scene which resulted in a Birmingham forward receiving his marching orders after an ugly off-the-ball incident involving David Scholefield.

Before the break Pickering scored in the left hand corner making the half time score 7-27.

In the second half Birmingham scored an early try and this encouraged them to battle on.

Unfortunately Barnett injured his left ankle with 20 minutes to go after a superb performance.

Collins then scored his second try of the day close to the final whistle with a cheeky charge down and chip and managed to touch the ball down.

Speaking after the game, returning from a week away in Spain, skipper Mick Christopherson said: "If you had offered me this score before the game kicked off I would have taken it. Any win away from home is good."

Coach Rob Collins added: "We have worked hard all week and recovered well from a defeat on the opening day. Next week we travel to Old Coventrians which will be another test for us."