Match Report courtesy of KC's press secretary Martin Easton...

KC’s hosted Bridgnorth in the annual Edgar Davies Shield match and the visitors comfortably retained the trophy although the game was much more closely contested than the final score would suggest.
With eight minutes played Bridgnorth ran a penalty from KC’s 22 which caught the home side napping and the visitors centre made the most of some flimsy tackling to open the scoring, his try converted by fullback Will Baddell.The next fifteen minutes was evenly balanced before some ping pong rugby saw both sides give the ball away cheaply in quick succession until KC’s managed a degree of control and drove over Bridgnorth’s tryline.They looked as though they would be held up but flanker Ben Binnion managed to wrestle the ball free and touch down to reduce the deficit to 7-5.In the greasy conditions both sides were guilty of a lot of handling errors which made for a topsy - turvy sort of game and there was no further scoring in the first half.

At the break KC’s made positional changes with fullback Mark James moving to No 9,Chris Pinner switching to flyhalf and Ian Crockett taking up the last line of defence.The reorganisation had an immediate impact with Kidder starting the second period playing some very good rugby but they missed a thirty metre penalty opportunity and were made to pay when Bridgnorth’s fullback gathered a kick and was allowed to run far too far to set up good field position which eventually led to the visitors scoring a try when they went blindside from a ruck.Their No 15 converted well from wide out to double their lead but there then followed a fifteen minutes spell of intense pressure by KC’s in which they did everything but score.They were virtually camped on Bridgnorth’s line but the visitors organised defence,although sometimes desperate,somehow kept them out but at the expense of a yellow card for their No 12 and a stern warning for their No 5.
Having weathered the storm Bridgnorth at last broke free from the shackles with a couple of good touch kicks and in the last ten minutes they ran away with the game,scoring three tries which were all improved by Baddell to give him a 100% conversion rate.
KC’s probably had more territory in the eighty minutes but the difference between the teams was that Bridgnorth finished clinically whereas Kidder could not turn their pressure into points.They return to League action next week away to Droitwich,the first of four crucial fixtures which will determine their fate in Mids 2 West (South).