Stour survive a scare in a real thriller

A scintillating clash saw the hosts wrap up a bonus point inside 17 minutes, score at a point-a-minute during the first half before losing the second period 38-17 on their way to a 57-45 triumph.

Stour were in front with a minute gone when Joe Heatley pounced on a South error to touch down in the corner.

The hosts then took control and added a second try through Reece Beddows with Rickie Aley landing the conversion.

A fine interception try from Aley, plus the extra two points, put the hosts 19-0 up.

Jack Lea then bagged his sixth try of the season followed by a fine score from Nick Cairns with the conversions from Aley making it 33-0.

The home onslaught continued with Llyr Griffiths and Sam Wilkes setting up Mark George to score. And with Aley making no mistake with the conversion, the lead was extended to 40 points.

The visitors had the last say of the half when Tom Cheney pounced on loose lineout ball to score and Ben Palmer converted.

At this point most of the 265-strong crowd must have thought it was ‘game over’ and even more so after Stour started the second half with a try from Dan Rundle and another two points from Aley.

The visitors hit back with a converted score through Joe Jones only for Nigel Mukarati to add to Stour’s tally with Aley landing two more to make it 54-14.

But Leicester refused to go quietly and a dramatic period saw them plunder 31 unanswered points as Javiah Pohe, Ben Palmer, Joe Lane, Myles Bean and Adam Johnson all grabbed tries.

That left a reeling Stourbridge side with eight minutes to see out the game.

And they, crucially, claimed the next score when Aley knocked over a penalty for the final points of a dramatic day.