Midlands 2 West (North)

Cleobury Mortimer 6 Whitchurch 36

Whitchurch stand just one game away from going through the Midlands Two West (North) season with a 100 per cent record after beating Shropshire rivals Cleobury Mortimer.

It was the champions' 21st successive league win, and another victory in their final outing against Leek on Saturday would complete the perfect campaign. The Reds were impressive in the first half against the league's basement side who, by contrast, will be heading in the opposite direction at the end of the season. They ran in four tries before the break to seal a bonus point to effectively settle the issue, although the one downside was that they failed to capitalise on their opportunities in the second period.

Cleobury battled hard in the sunshine all afternoon, and went ahead with an early penalty, before the Reds scored the first of their six touchdowns with wing Tom Skone crossing in the corner following a fine break by fly half Ryan Horton from his own 22.

Horton then went over himself wide out after another well worked move, the conversion again missed, before Cleobury reduced the arrears to 10-6 with their second penalty.

But Whitchurch had the bit between their teeth and continued to produce some attractive, flowing rugby, as they collected a third try when Horton sent a grubber kick through for Matt Davies to touch down, Danny Nicholas converting.

More good handling saw fullback Nicholas score a fourth try which he also converted for a 24-6 interval advantage.

A fifth try arrived soon after the break when Skone crossed the whitewash in the corner for his second of the game, before centre Henry Hockenhull burst through, with Skone adding the extras.