Droitwich 8, Spartans 25.

Spartans knew they were up against it from the off when the home side fielded a front five who were not lacking in size, and the early minutes belonged to Droitwich as the visitors got used to their surroundings. The soft, wet and full sized pitch soon cut up and proved a great leveller as both sides probed, and with no traction a slugfest began which was to last most of the day. Surprisingly intelligent play saw the Men In Black move upfield and feed the hungry Andrew Bushell for a try after ten minutes, but Droitwich were not going to lie down and hit back on the half hour with a lovely try of their own. The Blackness were now very much on the back foot and Droitwich added a well taken penalty to take the lead. With the momentum swinging their way the home side pressured Spartans' defence but some strong running from tiny Matthew Perry left Spartans with a good field position, and the back row linked well to restore the lead just before the half time break.

The second half began with play well and truly stuck between the ten metre lines, and Spartans were forced to sweat it out for a good while with Droitwich content to batter away at the visitors' door. As the scrum count rose into the thirties the Lords of Darkness in the front row came into a world of their own and laid the foundations for supremacy with a unique contribution, allowing Spartans to make valuable ground and inch towards the Droitwich tryline. Truly bovine play was the order of the day as the visitors bumped and grinded forwards, and a good sequence of drives saw an unrecognisable muddy black forward emerge from the swamp for the ugliest try in a long time. Finally there was some clear distance between the sides and with Droitwich beginning to tire Michael Blair spotted a hole to squeeze through for the bonus point try, and with the ever reliable Tom Hardy landing a penalty for the coup de gras time ran out on a very well contested game which both sides should be congratulated for their efforts.