Alcester go try crazy against Stratford 2nds on President's Day

ALCESTER won twice in one day on Saturday after scheduled league opponents Stoke Old Boys were not able to raise a side and the Red and Blacks were awarded a default bonus point home win.

The Kings Coughton men then went on to comprehensively beat Stratford 2nds 65-5 instead, who stepped in at short notice. Alcester made the perfect start to their President’s Day in front of a sizeable crowd who braved the dreary conditions.

Ant Cauvin made a powerful break down the far side before the ball made its way to club captain Max Biltcliffe to open the scoring. Less than five minutes later Stratford had levelled the scores, but their quick comeback gave a false sense of how the afternoon would go.

After a somewhat even opening 15 minutes, this would be the visitors’ only score of the afternoon. Jack Green put Alcester back ahead after running from deep in his own half.

There was still time for two more tries before half-time to give Alcester a comfortable foothold in the game.

Cauvin found himself at the bottom of a pile of bodies to claim Alcester’s third try before Mark Burrell accurately chip kicked ahead and was first to gather the ball over the line.

The home side went into the break with a 26-5 lead.

The scoring started early in the second half too. Prop Jack Horton called the ball out wide after noticing a large overlap and when the ball made its way to him, he had a clear pathway to the line.

Stratford started to lose men through injury with no substitutes to replace them and Alcester dropped their numbers to match, but their opposition were tired and deflated which allowed the hosts to open the scoring floodgates and to run in try after try.

Jacob Turner threw a convincing dummy pass which sold the defence to allow him to be the next over the line.

Lewis Walker ran three-quarters of the pitch to get his name on the scoresheet before Turner added his second, which bought up half a century for Alcester. Ed Gough added five more to the tally and moments later Will Silk took advantage of another over lap to add his side’s tenth try.

Alex Chiles ran in the last try of the afternoon and his score saw the ref bring an early end to the friendly affair.

On Saturday, Alcester travel away to Tenbury looking to continue their winning ways and cement third place in the Midlands Three West (South) table.