Crushing defeat for Ludlow

Ludlow's flying start to the season was brought to a crushing end with a heavy home defeat in Midlands Two West (North).

The Linney men won their opening four games but were comfortably second best on Saturday when they were beaten 25-0 by another unbeaten team, Aston Old Edwardians.

The visitors led 15-0 at the interval thanks to two tries, a penalty and conversion, and added two further unconverted scores after the break.

"We were surprised how good they were," admitted director of rugby Phil Norton.

"They were very well organised defensively and knew how to expose our weaknesses.

"We had made a good start but we knew the teams we had beaten were near the bottom of the table and it was going to be tougher now."

There was better news for Shrewsbury who climbed up to eighth in the table - despite their early season two point deduction - with a 17-10 victory over struggling Stafford.

The omens didn't look good for the Sundorne Castle men as they trailed 9-0 just after half-time with Stafford scoring three penalties.

But Shrewsbury gradually cranked up the pressure and, after a series of Stafford infringements, won a penalty try after the referee lost patience.

Mattie Morris converted and then kicked a penalty to put the hosts 10-9 to the good.

Shrewsbury full-back Jason Allibone then crossed the line with the only try of the game and Morris added the extras before Stafford scored a late consolaton penalty.

"We deserved the win because we dominated territory and possession, but we made harder work of it than we needed to," said spokesman Morris after his team's second successive victory.

Bridgnorth wasted an opportunity to move into the top five in the table after a shock 17-10 defeat to Wolverhampton.

All seemed to be going to plan for the All Blacks when Lewis Pitcher and Al Cooper crossed the line in the early stages to put the hosts 10-0 up.

But a string of unforced errors allowed Wolverhampton to fight back with three tries, one of which was converted.

And Bridgnorth's frustration boiled over in the second period with Pitcher spending a spell in the sin-bin.