Birmingham & Solihull Bees 31 Stourbridge 14
Sep 15 2008 by Roger Clarke, Birmingham Mail
BIRMINGHAM & Solihull Bees finally got their promotion bandwagon rolling with a storming second-half display in a four-try show at Sharmans Cross Road to swamp Midland rivals Stourbridge.
Russell Earnshaw’s side put last week’s miserable show at Redruth behind them and nailed their promotion credentials firmly to the National Two mast from the moment Mark Woodrow landed a fourth-minute penalty.
With 12 minutes gone Bees’ pressure brought a five-metre scrum and two minutes later their superiority was rewarded when Earnshaw found Cameron Mitchell with a long line-out ball and the former Stour centre was over in a flash and Woodrow added the extras.
Stour struggled to get into the game but with the pace of winger Martin Freeman were always a threat and, but for a last-ditch tackle by Scott Young two minutes from the break, he would have been in.
Former Bees centre Adam Billig was sent to the sin-bin on the break after a trip on Woodrow, so with a man down and under the cosh it was not the most obvious time to reduce the arrears, but when centre Ollie Grove ran in from 20 metres on the stroke of half-time they were back in the game.
Bees were quick to exploit their one-man advantage from the restart and on 42 minutes Simon Hunt went over on the flank. With Stour struggling to hold on before they went a man down it was no surprise when Hunt repeated the feat a few minutes later.
Mitchell then ignored a two-man overlap, which should have brought another try, while Rob Connolly knocked on when it would have been easier to score.
A fourth try was not long in coming, though, and it came on the hour courtesy of Jim Jenner, who had left Bees to become a firm Stour favourite before returning to Sharmans Cross Road at the start of the season.
Woodrow made it four from four conversions to increase the score to 31-7 and kill off any distant thoughts of a comeback by their Black Country visitors, although Stour did have the final say when Billig produced a late, converted try for a consolation score.
BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL: Spee, Hunt, Young (Aston 75), Mitchell, Culpin, Woodrow, Petty (Brown 65), Voysey (Lawrence 55 - 65), Phillips, Long, Davidson (Clayton 59), Orgee, Jenner, Connolly (Collett 77), Earnshaw (Lawrence 83).
STOURBRIDGE: Bressington, Freeman, Billig, Grove (Morris 63), Hall (T Hughes 51), Higgins, Richardson, Sturdy (George 62), Gerry, Mark (Rowlands 26), Homer, B Hughes (Dean 52), Knight, Jordan, White (Cooper 48).
