Clee Hill 25 - 19 Harborne

In a far away land there lays a place on a hill, in a field, on another hill that calls itself Clee Hill RFC. With an early start we arrived in good time and coo'ed over the Clubhouse that is coming on leaps and bounds over time.

With a warm up underway, whatever you don't kick during warm up unless its off a tee!, we braced ourselves for the top of the table clash that we knew would be fierce and competitive. It was.

After some initial scrappy play Harborne started well and simple hands eventually saw Aidan go over for the first, which Mr M Wright duly converted.

This seemed to diffuse the initial clash and the game went into some scrappy play thereafter, from both sides. Some good phases with the forwards interplay from the re-start, involving a strong line by Sharpie, some good hands and carrying by Clarke and Lawrence saw a knock end it.

Some strong running identified the centres as a key area and Harborne were dis-heartened when Ben W came off with blood after an almighty clash, but were buoyed shortly after when Chris 'The Hair' Keogh made a lovely cover tackle.

Clee Hill were keeping in it after the initial phases and some strong defensive work from Mills, Rhys and Ben saw Clee repulsed - with Macca chipping in with some turnover ball.

The next xscre came from Hodgy sniping, leading to a penalty for Harborne on the 5m. A good take at lineout saw some simple hands equate to a knock on, a strong scrum saw Sharpie crash over to score. Mr Wright duly converted again.

Clee Hill came back with a vengeance and some good D and another turn over from Macca saw them held. Clee Hill however, sniffing the line had none of it, they turned it back over and quickly scored. Unconverted.

Harborne has suddenly been hit in the face with a big f**k you and this continued. With the scrum going poorly this bolstered Clee and who ran a lovely 9/10 switch, Keogh managed to drag down the 10, but a - to be fiar - lovely offload saw them score. Which was converted, 12-14, getting close.

The ball then went back and for with kicking and after 2 penalties on the bounce Clee Hill had a lineout on the Harborne 5m line. A well worked set move saw the ball crash down the 5m channel and score, not converted, Clee Hill were in front - and loving it.

They played with a renewed vigour. Some good place kicking by mark saw Clee Hill under sustained pressure in their 22, Ben W made a lovely tackle on the winger after hunting him down as the ball worked its way out there but the Clee Hill 2nd row causing all sorts of issues.

Both sides were getting quite knackered and some simple errors in knocking on were killing momentum. Around this time I gave the note taking over to Nick 'Fingers' Curtis - I will essentially write his notes verbatim. The first comment is - ' Mark Wright screeched like a girl in celebration of the 2nd try'. Half time score was 17-14 to Clee.

There were, obviously, some stern words from Sigs and a complete change in front row. Keeping in line with Nick's notes as I was now on (not that I did much) -

Willow gives away penalty for not rolling away within 60 seconds of coming on.

Struggle in the scrum continued, losing two against the head in quick succession. The second of which leads to good hands and offloads for Clee Hill to score in far corner.

An up'n'under for Clee Hill was not gathered but found its way to Dan Reed who took it up into contact and placed well for a re-set. Some good phases with Clarke and Ben Adams led to good hands. This in turn released Will A, who released Wrighty (big or small not sure), then Aidan broke the last tackles to score. Small Wrighty missed. Clee still lead 22-19.

Mark Wright missed conversion to level. Injuries mounting, including Millsy who soldiers on regardless.

Lamby with a shocking knock on (I remember this it was a high ball I think, with sun in my eyes, a bit of wind in the air, a butterfly flew past my eyes distracting me momentarily).

Keogh holding on to give penalty away which Clee converts. Clee Hill missed a further penalty 60mins left but the damage was done, 25-19 loss for Harborne.

Thank you Ruth for photos.

Sorry for late report.