OLD Halesonians slipped to a narrow derby defeat against Bromsgrove.

The visitors edged last Saturday's clash at Wassell Grove 16 - 15 in wet and windy conditions.

Bromsgrove kicked off in front of a full President's Day crowd who weathered the storm in more ways than one.

Hales quickly got into their stride with a couple of dominant set scrums, front row Matt Young, Pete Fitzgerald and Rich Taylor showing their combined force. Early exchanges saw the home side penalised twice which was to be a theme for the game.

James Upton, the visiting full back, scored both and Bromsgrove continued with pressure down the hill but Hales defence stood strong. The visitors were unable to capitalise on good line out possession as Hales drove them off the ball.

Hales found it difficult to get any reasonable forward continuity against a competitive opposition who stuck to the basics well. Hales tried to make ground with Tom Jordan, Fitzgerald and Max Macfarlane leading the way.

This pressure after 14 minutes saw the ball collected by a visiting back under pressure, he tried to kick clear but was charged down by Andy Robinson for Andy Holloway to score an unconverted try making a 6 - 5 score to the Boars at half time.

In the second half Hales had the wind and slope advantage which they took with early pressure. Kicking for touch with a line out catch and drive, all forwards and backs joined the drive for scrum half Dave Hadkiss to touch down for a 10 - 6 lead.

The home side seemed to lift and maintain the pressure but still with too many penalties. Bromsgrove used the infringements to kick for ground. Their catch and drive looked dangerous and only staunch defence by Hales kept them out.

Hales again went on the attack with Carl Robinson, Hooper and Barkley combining well to make ground into the Grove half. Forwards in support kept possession, Hadkiss sent the ball along the backs, Hooper to wing Luke Smith who beat his man to the line 15 - 6.

This should have been the start of a Hales victory but the visitors had other ideas. The Hales penalty count continued, the visitors took the initiative and made ground. From the resulting maul Phil Horton, Bromsgrove number 8, went over to pull the score back to 15 - 11 with minutes to go.

This still should have been Hales game as they kept possession in the opposition half but yet another penalty gave the visitors another line out close to Hales line.

From the line prop Young was alleged to have taken a player out illegally for which he received a yellow card. From the resulting line out the visitors gathered the ball, drove forward and Matt Edgar scored in the corner in the last move of the game to win by a point.

Head coach Ben Hughes and director of rugby Gary Cox reminded the players of their misgivings during a game that should have been put away.

Hughes said: 'This performance was not good enough, the players need to look at themselves in a game that had too many penalties and scoring chances not taken. We need to put this right before our biggest challenge of the season next week away at Hinckley."

Meanwhile, the second teams maintained their brilliant season with a 10-5 success at Bromsgrove.

Tries from Jon Harris and Louis Madican helped them to the win.

The thirds lost 19 - 0 to Evesham seconds.