Pershore 13 Old Hales 14

OLD Halesonians travelled to Droitwich for a floodlit North Midlands Shield second round fixture against Pershore on Wednesday and came away with one-point victory.

Pershore, with a large and powerful pack began the game the brighter, with a penalty from the kick-off.

They added a second penalty before the break for a 6-0 lead. Despite crossing the line an impressive five times, a try eluded Hales and looked as though it was not to be their night.

This was compounded when Pershore scored a well-taken try in the 62nd minute.

However, in true Halesowen style, the Wassell Grove outfit battled on until the final whistle.

With the clock heading into stoppage time, Hales mounted a final assault for a try with a number of bulldozing runs from the forwards.

As a chink appeared in the hitherto staunch Pershore defence, fly-half Tom Harris spotted his chance, dummied, and raced through to score under the posts.

After Seb Rose’s conversion the referee announced that there was 22 seconds left. Amazingly, from the kick-off, a planned move by Hales saw Harris again make yards down the blind side before offloading to Tim Curtis on the Pershore 10-metre line.

Curtis still had the full-back to beat but used his experience to turn him inside out and cross the line out wide, to the delight of the travelling fans. Curtis cleverly, weaved his way through two more Pershore players to get closer to the posts to ease the pressure on Rose. Despite his efforts, the match-winning kick for Rose was a tricky one, yet he struck it cleanly between the posts to give Hales the lead with 10 seconds remaining. This time, from the kick-off Hales punted deep into the Pershore territory, where a handling mistake heralded the final whistle and signalled a remarkable comeback for Hales.