Match report courtesy of Kevin Woodham
Photography courtesy of Paul Hickey

Kidderminster Carolians played host to Ludlow in the semi-final of the North Midlands Shield and were worthy winners by 24 points to 14.
The opening score came within six minutes of the start, four or five good phases of play were halted when KC’s knocked on, from the resulting scrummage the Kidderminster forwards won the ball against the head, it was quickly transferred leftwards to Arthur Morgan who accelerated past the covering defence from 30 yards out to score the try, the conversion failed. The lead was increased when a promising Ludlow attack was stopped by a dropped ball, this was immediately pounced on by KC’s and passed fluently to the right, an excellent pass from Ryan Tiene to full back Chris May Miller allowed him to race over from 65 yards out leaving the Ludlow defenders in his wake, Freddie Morgan added the conversion with an excellent kick. KC’s now led 12 points to nil.

Over the next 15 minutes the sides were evenly matched, solid tackling from both teams being to the fore until a loose ball was snaffled up by Scott Lovell, he drove forward and from the ensuing ruck quick ball was transferred to Freddie Morgan who delivered an excellent pass to Ryan Tiene who was well inside his own half, he was held up in the corner but managed to release the ball to Alex Baldwin who in turn passed to Rhys Pritchard to score the try, the conversion by Freddie Morgan was successful and increased the lead to 19-0 which was the score at half time. However just before the break Kidderminster were reduced to 14 men when their hooker was yellow carded.

From the second half kick-off Ludlow launched a very strong attack which took them to within 10 metres of the KC’s line, unfortunately the ball was dropped and scooped up by Arthur Morgan who raced the length of the field to score a try and increase the lead to 24-0. The Ludlow response was powerful and against 14 men this power soon yielded a try under the posts the conversion being successful, the score now being 24-7. Kidderminster spent the next 15 minutes of the game camped on their own line and only strong tackling and resolute defence prevented Ludlow from reducing the deficit, this pressure was finally relieved by an excellent kick from Freddie Morgan which took the play to the half way line. For the remainder of the half the sides were evenly matched, neither producing any clear cut chances, with 2 minutes remaining Ludlow had a player yellow carded but they were still able to produce one last attack that resulted in a converted try, the final score being 24 points to 14. An excellent result, every available scoring chance taken and top quality defending and tackling when required. Well done.

The final of this competition will be on May 12th against Camp Hill RFC.
Kidderminster’s next League Match is away to Earlsdon 16/2/2019