May 4, 2008
Warwickshire made Lancashire work hard for a 35-25 victory at Preston Grasshoppers yesterday on their return to the Bill Beaumont Cup, the top flight of the County Championship.
Warwickshire, who won the County Championship Shield last season, won the respect of Lancashire team manager Steve Rigby through a dogged forward effort
“We came up against a very determined set of forwards who were bigger than us and posed us some problems, but when we did get possession, we converted our chances out wide very effectively with some great back play,” said Rigby
Coventry's Barbados international winger Kurt Johnson, Rotherham's former Nuneaton prop Phil Boulton and Nuneaton back-row Glenn Southwell scored Warwickshire's tries with Kenilworth fly-half Chris Brown converting two of the tries and kicking two penalties.
"We pressed quite hard on occasions but made a few mistakes," said Warwickshire coach John Widdowson. "Lancashire took their opportunities well but we never gave up and though we are disappointed with the result we were encouraged by our performance."
North Midlands, who were relegated from the Bill Beaumont Cup last season, made an impressive return to the County Championship Shield by beating Durham 41-16 in their opening North group match at Stourbridge.
Stourbridge winger Greg Summers led the way by scoring four tries including a hat-trick before half-time.
His fellow wingman Ryan Henshaw marked his county debut with a first half-try and captain Alex Davidson (Pertemps Bees) and Stourbridge prop Adam Sturdy crossed in the second half.
Leicestershire required a late try from South Leicester number eight Chris Bale and a conversion from his club-mate Mark Lord to beat Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire 22-21 at Newark and make it two straight wins in the County Championship Plate.
Bale scored his first try earlier in the game and winger Chris Griffin, also from South Leicester, also touched down with Lord adding a further conversion and a penalty.
NL&D also scored three tries with Nathan Eggleshaw (Paviors), their captain and number eight, scoring two to take his tally to three in two games.
Centre Simon Chilcott (Nottingham Trent University) scored the Three Counties' other try with fly-half Dan Graney (Paviors) adding two penalties. But Graney was unable to improve any of the tries, lapses which contributed to NL&D's second successive defeat.
Staffordshire bounced back from last week's defeat by Leicestershire in their opening pool game in the Plate to beat Essex 24-21 at Lichfield.
A try from replacement hooker Liam Wordley of Henley, an England Counties international, in the first minute of injury time secured Staffordshire's win with Scott Rawlings of Manchester adding the conversion.
Full-back Josh Fowles (Broadstreet) scored Staffordshire's opening try after good work by his brother Luke (Waterloo) and Longton centre Mike Swetman added the extras.
Staffordshire then conceded two converted tries before they took a scrum against the head an lock Matt Aston of Nuneaton crossed after a series of mauls and drives.
Richard Kelly of Longton was driven over for anoter unconverted try early in the second half but the lead proved shortlived as Essex centre Jamie Reid scored an individual try that was improved by Ben Montgomery.
But Staffordshire held their nerve and kept alive their hopes of progressing to the play-offs by securing victory in stoppage time. |
