The Leominster outfit had beaten the Bees on the last three occasions that the two sides had met, including the rather argy-bargy laden away encounter over at Mortimer Park back in October. Roll forward to January 2014 and Bees’ fans would have been forgiven for having a sinking feeling of déjà vu, as Luctonians clawed their way back to 16-15 in the 60th minute, having trailed 13-0 at half time.

With Bees captain Will Radburn in the sin bin and the visitors seemingly in the ascendency, the prospect of a fourth consecutive defeat to the side coached by former Bees’ favourite Alex Davidson seemed a real possibility.

However, it is a reflection of the emerging “dog” of the current Bees side of 2014 that the men from Portway soaked up everything that the visitors could throw at them, then going on to score a well deserved try in the final minute of the game to settle the contest, denying Luctonians a losing bonus point in the process.

With the Bees kicking off with a slight wind behind their backs, the opening 20 minutes of the game proved to be a rather cagey affair, with neither side able to assert dominance. Lucts winger Adam Knight came close to scoring on the 11-minute mark - a knock on was to deny the young speedster of a try.

Indeed the visitors had the lion’s share of the possession in the first quarter, so the Bees’ opening try after 22 minutes was somewhat against the run of play. The evergreen Rod Petty made an incisive break, offloaded to fly half Adam Canning who fed his three-quarters. Lovely handling right across the Bees’ backline put winger Alex O’Malley in at the corner.

Six minutes later, the Bees doubled their lead and O’Malley’s was again involved, when his chip through was rather fortuitously sliced into the hands of centre Steven John’s, making his home debut after impressing as a replacement up at Otley last week. Winger Dai Evans was on hand to take the pass and cross the try line. Although Canning was again unable to add the extras, the Bees were still 10 – 0 to the good.

The Bees were now beginning to take control and Steve Leach, playing at blindside flanker rather than his usual berth at centre, made a typically surging run after a deft offload from his captain. The burly Leach was held up, but the Bees were awarded a penalty with Lucts not rolling away from the tackle. Canning duly slotted the penalty to take the Bees into half time 13 – 0 up.

In the gathering Portway gloom, the second half started much as the first, although the Bees only took 10 minutes to get the score board ticking, with Canning adding a second penalty. Luctonians responded almost immediately, with replacement front row forward Jordan Street finishing off a well worked rolling maul from a line out 20 metres from the Bees’ line.

Sensing a way back in, Luctonians again deployed the rolling maul close to the Bees line – although the home side managed to repel the attack, referee Ryan Smith decided it was time to air his yellow card. Opting to kick for touch from the resultant penalty, another rolling maul from the line out saw Street bag his second try.

With a man down, the Bee’s tackling was as fierce as it had been all match long, but Luctonians made their numerical advantage tell with full back and skipper Jimmy Norris diving in for a well taken try at the corner. Fly half Tom Jones missed his third consecutive conversion attempt, but the score was now uncomfortably close at 16-15.

However with Radburn restored from the sin bin and the Bees urged on by home support, replacement Ashley Elvers finished off some good work by Oscar Heath, who had looked dangerous all game, to score the Bee’s third and final try. Canning rubbed salt in Luctonian wounds with the final kick of the game to bring the final score to 23-15 and evident relief to Bees players and fans alike.

Next week the Bees travel up to league leaders Darlington Mowden Park.

Teams:-

Birmingham & Solihull – Heath, Evans (T), Oliver, Johns, O’Malley (T), Canning (1C, 2P), Petty, Goddard, Stephens, Leach, Dunne, Spink, Long, Radburn ©, Koziot. Replacements Morley, Bingham, Boyce, Elvers (T) and Jolly.

Luctonians – Norris (T), Cheshire, Langdon, James, Knight, Jones, Roy-Smith, Hulland, James, Jones, Cheasley, Smith, Jones, Condliffe, Jones. Replacements Street, Marfell, Harris, Kelly and Prior.

Referee – Ryan Smith