Old Halesonians Colts 17 Birmingham/ Solihull 8.

On a dark and dreary November day Old Halesonians Colts lit up Wassell Grove with a brilliant win over Birmingham Solihull.

It was the visitors who set the pace and had the hosts desperately defending to keep their try line from being crossed.

Rob Butler, captain James Sadler and Andrew Holloway were in thick of it with some crunching tackles.

Old Hales attacks while sporadic at this stage still looked dangerous as David Wakefield and Mike Lawley probed but the visitors always seemed to be able to snuff out the attacks.

However, it was Old Hales who scored first after some good combined forward play by Luke Lewis and Sam Ward.

The ball reached winger Tom Moorhouse who used his speed and strength to score a unconverted try.

The Visitors were clearly shaken by this try but after a period of pressure that ended with a scoring penalty against Old Hales.

Both sides were now battling for supremacy and it was again the visitors who kept the pressure on when they scored a drive over unconverted try.

The hosts were not about to lie down and Adam Whiteman and Alex Herbert began to set the Old Hales threequarters although it felt like it would not be their day after having tow tries ruled out.

The second half saw the hosts keeping up the pressure as they tore into the visitors with some real aggressive driving from Liew Martinez and David Hunt.

Martin Pickerill’s bulk pushed the defence back further and then Jake Harley-Yeadon managed to get through a clump of players to score a much deserved try, which was not converted.

Old Hales now looked very confident with some sweeping threequarters play but the visitors defence was good.

Luke Cullis was coming more and more to the forefront with some good foraging.

With both sides running the ball as often as possible the home side scored an quite exceptional try.

With play near their 22 metre-line they declined to kicking to touch and started a training ground passing movement that flowed through the hands to David Wakefield who put in a exquisite pass to winger Jake Shellis who ducked and dived through a number of defenders to score a try converted by Andy Tromans.

With defeat staring them in the face the visitors to their credit came back and put Old Hales on the rack with some great forward pressure but the Old Hales defence was up for the fight and stood their ground until the referee brought an entertaining game to an end.