KENILWORTH continued their unbeaten start in Midlands Two West (South) with a 24-14 win at Silhillians.
David Ellis’ side made it three from three in a tough encounter at Warwick Road.
It was the hosts who got the scoreboard rolling with the first try of the afternoon. The successful conversion gave Sils a 7-0 lead.
Kenilworth then responded through Ed Hannam who scored the first of his two tries. The ball made its way to Hannam on the left wing and the centre showed good footballing skills to control the ball at his feet.
The kick through was perfectly-weighted and the centre pounced on the ball to touch down.
Josh Emery’s conversion went wide to leave the score at 7-5 to Silhillians.
Kenilworth struck again as the half-hour mark approached when Gareth Renowden fed the oncoming Alex Selby to break through the defensive line and score under the posts.
Emery’s conversion added the extras to give Kenilworth a 12-7 lead, a scoreline which remained until the break.
It then took until midway through the second half for more points to be added to the board as both sides applied pressure.
It was Kenilworth who extended their lead when Renowden went from provider to try scorer, scooping up the loose ball after a five metre line-out.
The scrum-half then spotted a gap in the Silhillians defence and twisted his way over the line.
Emery’s conversion went just shy of the uprights to leave the score at 17-7 with the final quarter to play.
Silhillians responded just five minutes later with a breakaway try on the left. A well-timed flat pass released a player on the wing who raced in from his own 22 to close the gap.
The conversion went through the posts to leave Silhillians just three points adrift with just over ten minutes remaining.
The closing minutes of the match proved to be a tense affair with Silhillians pushing hard to secure victory.
However, Kenilworth’s counter attack proved too strong and Hannam intercepted the ball on the Silhillians 22 and raced in to touch down under the posts deep into injury time.
Emery slotted the conversion as Kenilworth secured another impressive bonus-point victory to stay top of the table.
Kenilworth play host to Barkers’ Butts on Saturday, while Sils travel to Kidderminster.
Report complied with the help of Sophie Freestone.
