RUGBY UNION: KENILWORTH were made to sweat against mid-table Southam to keep promotion hopes alive in the Midlands 2 West (South) Division, writes Peter Jones.
The Glasshouse Lane outfit earned a hard-fought 22-15 win to remain in third place, seven points behind second placed Malvern and 13 points short of table topping Droitwich.
Despite dominating possession for most of the game, Kenilworth failed to convert pressure into points and the result was only settled in the last few minutes of the match.
Southam opened the scoring and took an early lead with two penalties.
Fly half Alex Selby subsequently responded with a penalty for Kenilworth to make it 6-3 to the visitors.
Prop Dan Minks then established a narrow Kenilworth lead, going over from just a few metres out before Selby converted to give the hosts a slender 10-6 lead.
Southam responded with two more penalties to nudge them ahead at half time with a score of 12-10.
After the interval Kenilworth’s young centre, Charlie Stevens, scored a fine individual try after Southam had added another penalty. The conversion was missed to leave the scores level at 15 apiece early in the second half.
Minks, who had a fine all round game, added another try in the last moments to put Kenilworth into the lead. Selby added the extras to give his side a seven point cushion as the match entered the final minutes, before the whistle blew to give Kenilworth a 22-15 victory.
