Stour opted to play the first half against both wind and slope, but found their set piece under pressure right from the start. With barely 3min on the clock front foot ball enabled the home threequarters to produce some slick handling out of the tackle, centre Gareth Turner bursting through to score in the corner.

A relentless bombardment of high kicks saw Stour pinned in their own 22, hosts winger Callum Gunn collecting a well struck cross kick to also score out wide. Stung into action Stour countered from deep with ball in hand, deft interchanges working flanker Joe Carpenter free to score. They tried to repeat the trick minutes later but an attempted offload went loose, the ball was hacked downfield and Turner won the footrace to score his 2nd try. Worse was to come when a blindside foray worked Gunn free to score the bonus point try and set up a 24-7 lead.

Undeterred Stour continued to run at the hosts, a line break by flanker Nigel Mukarati set up a try under the posts for debutant fullback Ash Elevers who had steamed up on his shoulder as he drew the last defender. The half ended with the hosts temporarily reduced to 14 men as referee Neil Chivers lost patience with their persistent infringing and brandished a yellow card at flanker Chris Zutic.

The hosts weren’t the only ones shooting themselves in the foot though, a marginal forward pass call drawing some mindless backchat bang in front of the Stour posts, outside half Rickie Aley stepping up to extend the lead by 3 points. Stour pressed their attacks but were held out until two more South Leicester forwards were sin binned near the hour mark. A penalty was tapped and run and after several phases the ball moved wide for centre Joe Heatley to score with nobody at home in defence.

Stour continued to press but the depleted defences held until a kick to the corner produced a catch & drive finished off by scrum half Toby Handley who reacted first when the ball squirted out of the side of a maul. Outside half Chris Scott landed the conversion reducing the deficit to just a point with less than 5 minutes left to play.

Stour tried to run again but winger Nathan Bressington was bundled into touch, the hosts securing a penalty award to wind the clock down with a set of tight phases in the Stour half. Stour held out and were awarded a penalty on the halfway line with a minute to go, they opted to kick at goal but Scott’s long rage effort drifted left and the final whistle sounded.

Next week Stour are on the road again, taking on high-flying Sedgley Park.