Aston Old Edwardians 27 Pershore 26

Aston won the right to meet Droitwich in the semi final of the North Mids Shield in a tight encounter under lights at Sunnybank Avenue. They exerted all the early pressure down the slope and Pershore found great difficulty in reaching their own ten metre line for most of the first half.

Tom McNamee and Josh Walker led the charges and Aston were awarded a penalty which Brad Meeson kicked against the post. Aston struggled somewhat to clear the ball from the back of the scrum but on one occasion the ball shot out of the back row at lightning speed and was shipped out to Tom McNamee, joining the line from full back. His pace and several hand offs enabled him to brush off numerous tackles and cross fifteen metres from the left touchline and Brad Meeson did the honours with the conversion.

Aston resumed the onslaught and made a lot of room on the right but spurned a chance to make a scoring pass which would have put Matt O'Hare over the whitewash from thirty metres. However, in short order, a quick tap penalty fed to Tom McNamee opened up a hole which led to a rather soft try which Brad Meeson easily converted.

Pershore got across the half way line for the first time as their forwards began to make their weight felt but Aston got hold of the ball and Brad Meeson made a swift break and followed it up with a perfect pass to Joe Williams on the left wing who finished easily to give Aston a nineteen point advantage. Pershore fought back and took play close to the Aston line again. They won a scrum and a superb drive enabled Martin Hope to score with Lewis Dolphin adding the points to leave the score at 19-7 at the half time whistle.

From the restart the nature of the game changed markedly as the Pershore forwards took an iron grip on the play for fifteen minutes. Aston defended honestly and determinedly but they conceded a number of penalties and could not get hold of the ball to clear their lines.

Michael Tate was yellow carded leaving the home team without their biggest forward and the intense pressure came back on mercilessly. The referee decided eventually that he had awarded enough penalties and gave a penalty try which was converted again by Lewis Dolphin. Pershore caught the restart kick and hoisted a high return which was taken brilliantly at full speed by Matt O'Hare. The play that followed saw Brad Meeson twice involved, Josh Walker taking the ball on and Joe Williams collecting his second try which went unconverted. This try, excellent as it was, went against the run of play at this stage and Pershore resumed their siege of Aston's line. They won a penalty but their scrum was so superior now that they chose this route and scored a pushover try to bring the score to 24-19 in Aston's favour.

Aston rallied again and pressed close to the Pershore line as good tackling from Josh Walker, Adam Ward and Michael Olatakun enabled them to gain ground. Brad Meeson kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to eight points and leaving Pershore needing two scores to win. Aston's forwards, who had battled hard in defence and attack, had more work to do though as Pershore, now a man light after a yellow card, worked their way into the Aston 22 and eventually grabbed a try, through the forwards, which was converted but, unfortunately for the visitors, did not leave them with any time to change the result.