Pete Stevens hails srcum-half Ben King after Tenbury Rugby Club's 22-10 win over Clee Hill at Palmer's Meadow (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Pete Stevens hails srcum-half Ben King after Tenbury Rugby Club's 22-10 win over Clee Hill at Palmer's Meadow

12:00pm Thursday 7th February 2013 in Sport By Ian Morgan

Tenbury 22 pts Clee Hill 10 pts

SKIPPER Pete Stevens hailed scrum-half Ben King after high-flying Tenbury toppled their local rivals to climb to second spot in the table.

Stevens called Saturday’s derby a ‘must-win game’ for his men and he was thrilled with their ef fort and desire.

“If somebody had told me we would win home and away against Bishops Castle, Clee Hill and Bromyard, I would have snapped their hand off,” said Stevens.

“We’ve done that now and there are so many players who are playing brilliantly.

I have never played in a Tenbury team with so much team spirit. It’s difficult for teams to come down to the Palmer’s to play against us.

“The Tenbury supporters were absolutely immense - Phil Smith and the other fans were like our 16th man.

Ben King at scrum-half had a smashing game and Andrew Wilkes was good at 10.”

The only disappointment for Tenbury was a missed first-half try for Mark Birks, who beat the covering defence only to step over the deadball line.

“Mark ran around a player and was trying to go under the posts when he stepped over the deadball line and the score was disallowed,” said Stevens. “I couldn’t believe it - I thought it was going to be one of those days.”

Tenbury scorched into a 7-0 advantage after just 10 minutes of the Midlands Four West (North) derby with Hill at Palmer’s Meadow.

Sam Hayes opened the scoring, bursting through three challenges to touch down and King slotted the conversion.

King added a penalty to put Tenbury 10-0 infront before Toby Higginson’s penalty got Hill on the scoreboard.

Tenbury led 10-3 at the interval but extended their lead when Ben Bridges crashed over after a line-out.

Replacement Richard Davies, at number eight, then dived over the line and King slotted to give Tenbury a commanding 22-3 advantage.

Hill refused to lie down and grabbed a consolation try, through centre Andrew Broome, and Higginson bagged the conversion. However, former Hill skipper Gary Edwards admitted that Tenbury were the stronger side. “Tenbury took a deserved win - they were the better team,” he said.

This Saturday, Tenbury will be aiming to keep up their title challenge at struggling Telford Hornets, who lost 34-10 at Barton-under-Needwood.