Stour welcomed back Caolan Ryan, on loan from Moseley and starting at fullback. Ben Hughes’ return pushed Robbie Hurrell to the replacements bench where he joined player-coach Jon Higgins.

Heavy rain in the week had left the playing surface soft, but there was barely a trace of breeze as Sedgley Park kicked off. The tone was set for the early exchanges as Stour coughed up possession at a lineout, setting up some frantic but ultimately fruitless passages of play in the Stour half where both sides looked to run with the ball but coughed up possession from turnovers or penalties.

A hanging clearance kick by scrum half Jacob Nash produced a first foray into Sedgley Park territory when the chasing wingers Bressington & Cooksammy forced a penalty, but the subsequent lineout was again lost and the ball-in-hand running battle resumed. A knock on by the visitors was hoofed through by Bressington who ran clear but was denied by the bounce of the ball. Ryan was looking very sharp on the counter and managed to fashion a half break, but his inside pass just evaded Eji Uzoigwe. So it continued, both sides showing plenty of endeavour in attack but failing to exert enough pressure to force mistakes out of well-marshalled defences.

Stour’s lineout continued to misfire, affording the visitors’ time & space to plant kicks deep into their 22. Referee Luke Haskins took exception to some backchat from the home front row but Sedgley Park kicker Steve Collins’s relatively straightforward kick at goal drifted wide. Stour drove upfield and started to force penalties out of the visitors’ defence, kicking to the corner before moving it wide from where Cooksammy planted a deft kick ahead that sat up nicely in the in-goal for the alert Stef Shillingford to score unhindered. Ryan slotted a far-from-straightforward conversion, 7-0 on the half hour.

But Stour’s misfiring lineout allowed Sedgley Park to drive play deep into their 22 from where they opted to run an eminently kickable penalty as defenders strayed offside. Stour held them out as the clock approached halftime but were penalised at a scrum, the visitors ran it and the ball was worked to 2nd row Juan Crous who barged through to score near the posts. Even worse for the hosts was a freak injury in the build-up to centre Ben Barkley that turned out to be a multiple fracture of the jaw for which he was detained overnight in hospital awaiting an operation. Halftime 7-7.

An undercooked restart kick gifted possession back to the visitors, they attacked again and from an innocuous-looking build-up managed to fashion a mismatch when winger Andrew Riley found himself with room to run around a defending prop. 7-14.

Stour forced a penalty at a scrum, kicked for the corner and drove, forcing a cynical spoil by the visitors prop Hymes that earned him a spell in the sinbin. Stour couldn’t get their attacking maul to work though and were held out by the depleted defence. A kicking duel drove them deep into their own half before they started to pick the tempo up as the replacements arrived. Ben Hughes pounced on loose lineout ball and Stour attacked, Gary Dipple now at centre fashioning a halfbreak for Shillingford who drove deep into the visitors 22 before a hand in the ruck killed the move and was arguably lucky not to draw another yellow card. Ryan slotted the penalty though to reduce the deficit on the scoreboard. 58min 10-14.

The lead was restored though as the game entered the final quarter, the Stour front row popping up in the scrum and Collins slotting the penalty. Stour kept the tempo up though, forcing further penalties that were squandered when a kick to the corner was overcooked. But the decisive call came when replacement Mark George announced his arrival at tighthead by forcing a turnover straight back at the subsequent scrum, Drew Harper punching big holes as he ran from the base but the final pass failing to go to hand and a score went begging. No matter, George forced another penalty, it was kicked to the corner and Stour laid siege to the visitors’ line. The defences seem to have just about held them out until a 5m scrum was driven over for replacement Drew Harper to score at the base. Ryan coolly slotted the conversion. 78min 17-17.

The visitors launched a late assault but the Stour nerves, discipline & defences & held, eventually forcing a penalty in their own 22 that drew the conservative but probably wise decision from captain Nigel Mukarati to kick it off the park and share the league points. Final score 17-17.