Match report courtesy of Martin Easton...

A superb defensive display laid the foundations for yet another KC’s bonus point win which consolidated their third place position in Mids 2 West (S) and restricted a more than useful Old Leamingtonians side to a solitary long range penalty.

A raking kick to touch by flyhalf George Morgan gave Kidder early field position and with just five minutes on the clock prop Matt Rigsby went over for the opening try following a series of forwards drives from a five metre lineout.The visitors’ fullback confidently landed a penalty from the halfway line and they then had a twenty minute spell in which they enjoyed a good deal of possession and territory but could not do very much with it in the face of some resolute and committed KC’s tackling which hounded them into errors that the home side were able to feed off.

Firstly,centre Mitchell Hardwick ran in an interception try from halfway to touch down under the posts and Morgan’s simple conversion extended the lead to 12-3.Fifteen minutes later openside Rob Phillips ran around OL’s left winger and raced away to score in the right corner and almost immediately afterwards No 11 Laurence Hughes seized on a loose ball to run in unopposed from forty yards out for a fourth try,excellently converted by Morgan,to secure the bonus point and a healthy 24-3 lead with only half an hour played.
The Baldwin twins were swallowing up the restarts to give KC’s an attacking platform and the visitors’ cause was not helped when their flyhalf was yellow carded for a late tackle on Morgan.A terrific counter attack sparked by Phillips,taken on by Alex Baldwin and involving several other pairs of hands was worthy of a try but KC’s had to settle for a penalty which was unfortunately missed and there was no further first half scoring.

At the start of the second period another loose ball was snapped up by Hughes who looked to put Morgan in but a knock on saved OL’s who were again soon testing KC’s defence which,however, continued to hold firm even when replacement lock Jack Tunstall was yellow carded.The resultant penalty saw the visitors find a good touch and from the lineout they launched a threatening attack which was snuffed out by a cracking Nick Martin tackle.OL’s then had to play the last half hour with fourteen men when their No 10 was shown a second yellow and dismissed from the field.KC’s wasted no time in taking advantage as a quickly taken tap penalty caught the visitors unawares and Phillips crossed for his second try,improved by Morgan’s third conversion.

Although there were still twenty five minutes remaining,that was the end of the scoring and Kidder pretty comfortably wrapped up a mightily impressive seventh win from their last eight league matches.

The Hillandale Caravans man of the match award went to ever consistent scrumhalf Chris Pinner but this was an all round team effort which would have pleased head coach Ian Bletcher no end and the performance will need to be replicated next week when KC’s travel to take on second in the table Spartans.