Stour’s injury crisis was such that Saturday’s matchday squad featured 3 debutants, Dale Garner making his first-ever appearance at tighthead prop & Moseley loanee Jack Lea his first start in the hooker’s jersey. In the circumstances, all credit to the team for coming so close to sneaking the result at the end, but as it was they succumbed to a 3rd successive defeat, a run not experienced since the club’s relegation from National 1 in 2011/12.

Stour were first on the scoreboard when winger Jamie Hearn - restored to kicking duties with Gareth Bown on the bench – slotted an early penalty after a Caldy defender strayed offside. Caldy outside-half Ben Jones pulled the scores back level a few moments later though when a tackler failed to roll away quickly enough.

Stour started to build up pressure on the visitors defences but were halted when a ball carrier was penalised for holding on just short of the line. The game ebbed & flowed and Stour had another opportunity 10 minutes later when no.8 Drew Harper was unable to ground the ball after barging his way over into the in-goal, they were penalised though as the pack came under pressure at the resulting 5m scrum and the opportunity was lost.

With Stour unable to turn pressure into points Caldy gained further confidence as they exposed vulnerability in Stour’s normally rock-solid scrum & lineout phases. A neatly worked set of offloads found holes in the hosts’ defensive line before flanker Nyle Davidson crashed over on the half hour mark from a 5m scrum. Stour put themselves back under pressure with an unforced error and Caldy centre Jack Lavin benefitted from a mismatch in the defensive line shortly after to extend the lead further.

Sub Bobbie Lawrenson was introduced at the expense of Robbie Hurrell, Chris Depper stepping up to the 2nd row to cover. Stung into action Stour drove into the Caldy half, scrum half Sione Tu’ipolotu and then Harper making big inroads with direct runs at the defence that set up Lea for a short range drive for the line with the assistant referee confirming he’d grounded the ball. Hearn converted, 10-17. With just seconds left on the clock Stour tried to repeat the exercise from the restart but disaster struck when Harper got penalised for holding on in the tackle, Jones slotting his 4th successful kick at goal to make the halftime score 10-20.

Caldy were out of the blocks first in the 2nd half but they butchered a gilt-edged scoring opportunity with a wayward offload after missed Stour tackles allowed Jones to run deep into their 22. The visitors turned the screw at the resulting scrum set though, forcing a series of penalties that they opted to re-scrum. With referee Chris Bennett likely pondering a penalty try award the Stour pack dug deep and held out on the 4th time of asking. They’d sweated blood and your heart went out to them as they looked up to see the threequarter defences drawn all too easily to the inside channels, the ball worked wide for winger Nick Royle to enjoy a simple run-in as the hosts ran out of wide defenders. 50min 10-27 and a mountain to climb.

Hearn chased the restart kick to force an attacking lineout just outside the visitors 22. A fine take by Hughes set up a series of trademark direct drives that were only repelled when a maul got held up just short. The clearance kick failed to relieve the pressure, Hughes took another lineout and Stour drove a maul to the tryline and were awarded a penalty as the defenders transgressed. Tu’ipolotu reacted fastest, a tapped penalty and charge producing a trademark short range try. 55min 17-27 and glimmers of a revival.
With the home supporters at last having something to cheer about Stour maintained the tempo by running the restart back at the visitors. A tackle infringement penalty was kicked for position into the visitors 22, Stour reloaded and drove remorselessly forward. Captain Nigel Mukarati was unable to get an offload away to Depper free on his right but the ball was recycled for Lea to barge over again from short range. Hearn couldn’t convert though so it was 22-27 on the hour mark and Stour with the momentum.

Caldy countered from the restart, Stour holding them out thanks only to a last-ditch counter-ruck by centre Stef Shillingford that forced a turnover inches short of the hosts’ tryline. They countered but disaster struck when Lawrenson was caught in possession by Davidson and conceded another penalty for holding on that Jones converted to re-establish a 2-score lead. 65min 22-30.

Stour were straight back in attack, forcing a 2 man overlap that was spurned when an attempted cut-out pass flew behind the intended recipient. Hearn got another shot at goal from a penalty on 70min but it flew wide. With time running down the next penalty was kicked for the corner where a trademark catch & drive was trundled over for captain Mukarati to register the bonus point 4th try, Hearn converting to bring the scores to within a point on 29-30 with 5min to go.

Back came Stour from the restart, again looking to keep the tempo up and move the ball around but it was dislodged from the grasp of replacement prop Luke Cullen and they had to scramble back deep into their own 22 to recover possession. Caldy looked to secure a try bonus point of their own as they kicked a penalty award to the corner, but the home defences held them out and forced a penalty which was tapped & run. Caldy were not going to surrender the prize easily though and forced a turnover to kick the ball off the park and record their first ever victory at Stourton Park. Final score 29-30.