A HAT-trick of tries from centre Mark Williams helped Ludlow ease their way to a convincing 47-13 victory over visitors Cannock in Midlands Three West (North).

And with two more home games to round off the season, skipper Will Norton is hoping his players can keep that winning feeling going until the end of the campaign.

Ludlow made a dazzling start, running in five tries without reply in the opening half-hour with Williams bagging the opener after just five minutes, Will Sparrow slotting over the first of his six conversions.

Full-back Sparrow added the second try before fly-half James Lynes added his name to the scoresheet.

Winger Tom Evans dotted down wide on the right for the fourth, the only one to elude Sparrow’s trusty boot, with Sparrow scoring his second before slotting over the extras and a late penalty for a 33-6 interval lead.

Williams, making his return following a six-week lay-off through injury, took centre stage in the second half with two more tries to complete his hat-trick with the visitors bagging a late consolation effort.

Not that it was all plain sailing for Ludlow who had to play out the final minutes with 14 men after Sparrow was sin-binned for dissent.

“We had a strong side out and managed to get off to a flier,” skipper Norton explained. “We have had a few players missing so it was good to get them back.

“We’re looking forward to our final two games now against neighbours Clee Hill and Cleobury Mortimer. Hopefully we should have most of our players available so it would be good to keep the winning run going and to get a decent crowd down there.”

All the tries were scored by the backs on Saturday but the captain also praised the efforts of his pack, particularly second row Dan Hicks who was voted man of the match.

“It was only Dan’s second game in the second row as he had previously played football,” Norton added. “Matt and Sam Wilkes also worked hard for us. Without the forwards doing their thing we wouldn’t have seen much of the ball.”

Saturday’s match will see Clee Hill at The Linney after the fixtures were reversed at the start of February when the match was played on a very wet Tenbury pitch. On that occasion, Clee Hill ran out 24-8 winners, although Ludlow had a number of players missing, with Norton scoring all of his side’s points through a penalty and a second half try.