HAVING turned their season around with crucial back-to-back wins, Cleobury Mortimer CC were unable to raise a team on Saturday and were forced to concede their game at third-from-bottom Abergavenny.

The resulting ten-point penalty plunges Cleobury back into the relegation scrap, with their Welsh rivals closing the gap to just four points with an automatic victory and with Ed Kemp’s side 21 points above the bottom two.

“We only had eight players available,” said the Cleobury skipper, “and two of those have barely played for us for a few years. It’s been coming though, we’ve been playing by the skin of our teeth for a few weeks but it’s our first concession in around five years. It’s gutting because if we’d won this week we’d have been out of trouble.”

And it was the same grim story at relegation-threatened Knighton on Teme, who were forced to concede their trip to third-from bottom Colwall 3rds, leaving the scheduled visitors just three league points, some 72 points adrift of Saturday’s planned hosts.

The doomed fixture was Knighton’s second cancellation in a row and was prompted by a large contingent of the squad being absent on a stag weekend.