Leamington lose, despite Chamberlain's magic touch

The game was preceded by a minute's silence in memory of Christine Hodgetts, wife of Leamington club stalwart, John Hodgetts, who died recently.

The hosts were giving 1st XV debuts to Full Back, Sam Bond and Forward, Jake Dallyn, who started on the replacements bench and they also welcomed the return of Second Row, Charlie Wiggin.

Leamington were on the money from the opening whistle and put the visitors under pressure with some quickfire attack play. Wing forward, Gareth Shuttleworth, set the scene with an early darting dash and Prop and skipper, Louis Dunbavin, followed this up with a strong run, winning a penalty in the process. From this good territorial position, Danny Ruyssevelt claimed lineout ball and allowed his backline to try to press home the advantage, spinning the ball across the pitch. However, Alcester's defence withstood this onslaught, which continued unabated for several minutes, before catching Leamington cold with a breakaway try and conversion.

This break in Leamington's early dominance certainly gave the visitors confidence as they quickly followed up with another converted score.

The home side needed to find a way of turning their attacking ingenuity into points and did so in the most stunning fashion. Recycling the ball near their 22 metre line, they moved the ball to the nearside wing and into the arms of Conor Chamberlain. Although surrounded by plenty of Alcester players, the skillful winger's sudden burst of speed caught everyone by surprise. From an initial defensive position, Chamberlain was soon sprinting into Alcester's half and ghosting through several attempted tackles, before heading between the posts, for a superb, outlandish and quite exquisite, piece of individualism.

More drama followed as the half time whistle approached, when a seemingly clear-cut touch down from Leamington was deemed to be held-up, by the poorly positioned match official.

Deja vu for Leamington, as they opened up the second half proceedings with some clever attacking play, only to be hit on the break by the visitors and conceding another converted score. In their earlier dominance, Leamington had pressed in the Alcester half, winning good lineout possession through Charlie Wiggin, who was competing well, in his first outing of the season.

The visitors slotted over a penalty goal and in doing so, opened up a clear gap as they became the more dominant of the two sides now. Leamington were forced into some last ditch defending, which saw Second Row, John Brear, having to save one situation and then Centre, Rich McKowen, cleared his lines with a huge kick to touch.

A further, unconverted try earned Alcester a clear win, although Leamington did have the final entry in the scorebook, when Charlie Wiggin finished off a series of drives from his pack, with a smart dive over the line. McKowen added the conversion.

A first defeat of the season for Leamington, against a very confident Alcester side, who will be a test for most teams in the league on this showing.