MALVERN triumphed 30-25 over Barkers Butts in a Midlands Two West (South) thriller on Saturday, writes Aaron Wise.
The win for the hosts kept them one league place above their opponents in sixth, but the Coventry-based side made Malvern fight hard for the win.
The visitors started well by putting Malvern under pressure and the Spring Lane side lost hooker Richard Hobbs to an early injury, which forced George Withers to come off the bench.
Having weathered an early onslaught, the hosts started to take control and, from a lineout, the ball was quickly moved out to Richard Fleming who burst through for the opening score.
Malvern continued to dominate proceedings as the forwards put in a 20m driving maul before Liam Roleston was on hand to go over. Will Gough’s conversion made it 12-0.
After another drive into the visitors’ 22, Joe Budd fed Adam Dixon and the stand-off put Fleming in for his second try of the afternoon.
Malvern’s comfortable lead did not last long as a loose Malvern kick was returned and carved through the home defence for a converted try on the stroke of half time.
The second period saw Barkers continue to push forward with real intent and, after a wave of pressure which saw penalties rack up, two scores brought them back to within four points of Malvern.
A Gough penalty restored the gap to seven, but Barkers responded by working the ball down the line to score another converted try to level the game at 20-20.
Malvern edged back in front when the ball was passed out to Ieuan Mustow, who put in a clever chip kick to beat the defence before running through to score.
The hosts once again failed to hold on to the lead though as Barkers caused more nerves amongst the home crowd when they went straight back down field to score a try in the corner.
As the game came to a conclusion, Malvern were awarded a penalty and Gough scored the three points to secure the impressive win.
Malvern travel to struggling Bedworth on Saturday (3pm).
MALVERN Colts missed their chance to reach the North Midlands Colts Cup final as they fell to an agonisingly close 29-27 defeat to Church Stretton in the semi-final on Sunday.
