Both sides have had good seasons finishing sixth and fifth respectively, so the 500 plus crowd at Portway may have possibly been expecting an end of season jamboree. Instead they were treated to a fiercely competed game played, at times, in near monsoonal conditions, that went right to the wire.

The game kicked off in pleasant sunshine and there was certainly plenty of spring in each side’s steps as both teams looked to put early points on the board. Chester came close to scoring in the left hand corner with just 5 minutes on the clock, after a strong run from their Tarzan-like No.8 David Ford. The home defence, which was to prove solid all afternoon, held firm and - with an injury sustained in the attack - Bees’ old boy Tom Foden was sadly to play no further part in the afternoon’s proceedings.

The Bees’ No.8 Steve Leach capped an excellent personal season by scoring a try after 9 minutes from a catch and drive at the line out. Canning was unable to take the conversion when the ball was blown off the kicking tee - then the fly half had insult added to injury when he was tackled by a Chester player, whilst trying to improvise a dropkick. It was just one of several slightly bizarre incidents that was to crop up during an eventful game.

With both sides fully committed in the tackle and at the breakdown, it was only a matter of time before an element of feistiness was creep into the game. Youthful-looking referee (or am I just getting old) James Munro was forced to have a word with both captains as feelings boiled over. The Chester loose head prop Gavin Woods, bearing a striking resemblance to former Bees’ favourite Alex Davidson, was to be in the thick of things all afternoon.

The rest of the first half generated more heat than light, with two good defensive units rather cancelling each other out and both sides guilty of making unforced errors. Chester seemed to have the edge in the scrum and the usually reliable Bees’ line out was somewhat out of sorts too. Chester narrowed the deficit to just 5-3 on the stroke of half time with a James Mitchell penalty.

Dark clouds were looming as the second half got under way and again it was Chester who were putting early pressure on the Bees line. The home side defence was on the money again and the pendulum swung the other way with a dangerous blind side run by Bees’ winger Jimmy Oliver. However a long range penalty by Mitchell gave the visitors a 5-6 lead and with the rain now of a biblical magnitude, Chester had the Bees pinned in their 22 for a 10 minute period.

Mitchell had three consecutive penalty attempts, but could only manage to slot the third one to further increase the advantage to 5-9 to the men from Cheshire. With the rain easing and fresh legs on, including Matt Long, the Bees regrouped and started to carry the ball up field with renewed vigour. With Chester replacement prop Nathan Rushton yellow carded, the Bees pressed on and were rewarded with a try for Matt Spink. Canning couldn’t add the extras, but the Bees now held a vital, albeit slender, 10-9 lead.

The final 15 minutes – more than 5 of which was time added on – was nerve racking for the home supporters, as the Bees held on to their lead despite losing Spink to the sin bin. But with Matt Long and Club captain Will Radburn playing their last games in a Bees shirt – the latter hopefully only temporarily due to an impeding two year sabbatical down under – this was never a game that this much matured Bees side was ever going to countenance losing.

Birmingham & Solihull embark upon their 2014/15 National League 2 North campaign in September.

Teams:-

Birmingham & Solihull – Fensome, Evans, Connolly, Johns, Oliver, Canning, Petty, Leach (T), Scriven, Stephens, Goddard, Spink (T), Koziot, Radburn ©, Boyce. Replacements Bingham, Long, Thorp, Onojofie, Jolly and Mogaji.

Chester – Green, Rees, Foden, Nelson, Evans, Mitchell, Williams, Ford, Moore, Bown, MacKenzie, Sherlock, Fitzgerald, Gill, Woods. Replacements – Rushton, Towers, Joseph, Jeffers and Vare.

Referee – James Munro