Early points were going to be at a premium with rain falling onto an already soft surface, and crucially Stour struck first. James Otutaha’s tackle disrupted a midfield Sedgley Park threequarter move and colleague Joe Heatley hoofed the ball deep into the hosts’ 22 where the cover failed to defuse it. Lock forward Chris Depper’s challenge saw the ball go loose again, winger Josh Trinham secured it on the floor and fed Heatley who rounded the cover to score in the corner, outside half Chris Scott slotting a difficult conversion.

The hosts’ outside half Steve Collins hit back immediately with a penalty, but this simply inspired Stour who produced the best play of the game from the restart. Full back Rod Petty fielded a deep infield kick near the Stour 22 and spotted a mismatch down the left side. Trinham took his pass in space, evaded two tacklers then drew in two more before feeding no.8 Connor Nicholls who came through at pace from 40m out to burn off the cover and score under the posts.

Scott landed another penalty to extend the lead to 14 points before the hosts managed to mount some pressure in the Stour 22, working the phases and rewarded with a penalty try when a defender was rather harshly judged to have played a man off the ball. Halftime 10-17.

The hosts managed to set up camp again in the Stour 22 early in the 2nd half, a maul driven close to the Stour line drawing a yellow card for Nicholls as he went in at the side. In his absence Stour managed to hold out but at the cost of 6 points conceded to Collins’ boot, leaving the game delicately poised at 16-17.

The surface was now chewing up badly, making running rugby difficult and Stour’s defences took a real test as the hosts threw the kitchen sink into attack. Scott pulled a long-range shot at goal left but the drop-out sat up invitingly for the quick-thinking Heatley who left the bemused home defenders grasping at air as he scorched through to score in the corner. Scott landed another difficult conversion.

Play became scrappy as the rain continued to fall, limiting attacking options to short drives and kicks ahead. Stour’s defences held firm though and with time running out the hosts settled to kick at goal to secure a losing bonus point. Full time 19-24.