EVESHAM moved into the second Midlands Three West (South) promotion place without having to throw a ball in anger.
Saturday’s scheduled hosts Old Leamingtonians conceded the match two days prior through lack of a front row, meaning the Vale side were awarded five points.
Evesham still travelled to the Warwickshire side to play a friendly and a profitable day was made even better when they discovered Ledbury had suffered a 17-12 defeat at Old Coventrians.
Evesham leapfrogged Ledbury into second place and hold a one-point advantage with three matches remaining, the first of which is Saturday’s visit of Old Wheatleyans.
EVESHAM U16s returned to winning ways with an 18-15 victory at a spirited Stratford on Sunday.
The visitors broke the deadlock in a physical encounter when fly half Owain Hann spotted a gap in Stratford’s back line and ran in to score from halfway. The conversion was missed.
Hann then converted a penalty kick to take Evesham into an 8-0 lead.
However, Stratford quickly responded with two unconverted tries to lead 10-8 at half time.
Stratford started the second half with an early unconverted try and looked in control.
Evesham were playing some good rugby but lacked control near the try-line until a change in tactics put Stratford back under pressure and created two unconverted tries – one for stand-in hooker James Cross and another for winger Josh Sellick.
The only blemish on a hard earned victory was Hann suffering a fractured ankle. Everybody at Evesham RFC wishes him a speedy recovery.
Man of the match was Joe Wall.
