Against third in the table Spartans, KC’s yet again had no option other than to travel with a youthful side and although they could not be faulted for effort they were well beaten as the home side emphatically avenged the 33-3 defeat they had suffered in the reverse fixture at Marlpool Lane back in January. Kidder made an encouraging start with a strong run by left wing Ryan Tiene taking play from inside their own half into the hosts’ 22 to establish field position and when Spartans were caught offside in front of their posts skipper Chris Pinner knocked over the penalty.However,just two minutes later Spartans used turnover possession to kick behind KC’s defence and their outside centre gathered the ball to cross for the opening try which was converted by their flyhalf for a 7-3 lead which he extended with ten minutes played,comfortably slotting a regulation penalty opportunity.

From early on it was clear that KC’s were in for a difficult afternoon at the scrums and lineouts but despite having hardly any decent setpiece ball to work with they occasionally looked dangerous from broken play with some elusive running by fullback Rhys Pritchard,scrumhalf Freddie Morgan and young centre James Barham on debut,and also some powerful surges by No 8 Jess Smith but generally the home side dominated both possession and territory and Kidder had an awful lot of tackles to make and did not help their cause by disputing some of the ref’s decisions,resulting in penalties against them for dissent.In the event,there was no further scoring until the thirty fifth minute when Spartans No 8 almost inevitably went over from a five metre scrum.Surprisingly,the straightforward conversion attempt struck a post and just before halftime KC’s had a chance to reduce the arrears but missed a none too difficult penalty from inside the hosts 22.Nonetheless,trailing at the break by only twelve points at 15-3,they were not entirely without hope if they could only get a bit more ball in the second half.

Unfortunately,any grounds for optimism were dealt a blow within two minutes of the re-start as,playing a penalty advantage,Spartans scored wide out right and the try was upgraded by a superb conversion.To their credit,KC’s hit back five minutes later when Pritchard made a penetrating break from deep before linking with Pinner and the ball was moved left to Tiene who was tackled just short but managed to stretch over the whitewash for a fine try which cut the deficit to to 22-8. Kidder then had another good attacking position fifteen metres from the tryline but an overthrown lineout enabled Spartans to launch a counter attack and from scrum possession on KC’s 22 they created an overlap for their left wing but the final pass was forward and the visitors escaped.

Apart from a sporadic Kidder breakout by Pinner,Morgan and right wing Keiron James which took play from one 22 to the other,the hosts remained very much in control and in the last fifteen minutes they made their dominance pay with three converted tries as KC’s,forced to defend for so much of the game,understandably began to tire.Firstly,a sustained Spartans attack was finished off by their fullback with a try under the posts and then a careless pass as KC’s attempted to escape from their 22 gifted them an interception try before,right on the final whistle,the No 15 went over again to end a forgetable afternoon for the away side.

On Saturday,in their last home fixture of the season,KC’s take on Tamworth - KO 3.00 pm.