Birmingham & Solihull 22, Redruth 25

Redruth survived a tense finale as the Bees swarmed all over their line only to be denied by stout defence and the referee adjudging a home player to have been held up over the line with the final play of the game, writes Bill Hooper.

The result sees the Reds sitting in third place in the league ahead of Saturday’s visit of Canterbury to the Recreation Ground.

Having weathered early pressure from the home side Redruth took the lead when flanker Sam Stevens picked off an overthrow at the lineout to charge over from close-range.

Full-back Aaron Simmonds was on kicking duties for the Reds, in the absence of regular kicker Richie Kevern, and slotted a fine touchline conversion.

The Bees struck back with an unconverted try from their talismanic No.8 Umraan Jadwat.

Simmonds extended Redruth’s lead with a penalty before Jadwat put in a fine run deep into Redruth territory before finding his wing Luke Smith who scored their second try, with scrum-half Jack Jolly adding the conversion to put the Bees ahead.

Despite pressure on the home scrum, Jadwat again proved to be a thorn in Redruth’s side as he picked up and made a strong run to score his side’s third try of the half, Jolly once again adding the extras.

Simmonds trimmed the deficit right on half-time with his second penalty to leave the Bees 19-13 up.

A good period of pressure from the Reds was rewarded when centre Jack Simmons went over in the corner for an unconverted try cutting the deficit to just a single point.

Scrum-half Jack Oulton had a great scoring chance but sadly he was tackled just short of the line.

Jolly then kicked a penalty to nudge the Bees a little further ahead but the scrum-half then blotted his copy-book when he was shown a red card following foul play as Redruth pressed on the home line.

Scrum-half Jack Oulton had a great scoring chance but sadly he was tackled just short of the line as the Reds looked to press home their numerical advantage.

From the ensuing play Redruth scored their third try through flanker Mark Grubb with Simmonds adding a vital conversion for a 25-22 lead.

Despite sustained pressure from the hosts, Redruth held out to record their third win on the road this season.

Birmingham & Solihull: C Venus (O Walker 6) , L Smith, D Kelly, N Tilsley, M Dight, M Rodman (A Nunney 28), J Jolly (Capt); J Foreman (N Rigby 40), J Willis (J Foreman 77), K Payne (M Probert 38), A Weaver, D Wright, A Scriven (E Krawiecki 63), M Brown, U Jadwat.

B’ham & Solihull: Tries, Jadwat (2), Smith, Cons, Jolly (2), Pen, Jolly

Red Card: Jolly (68)

Redruth: A Simmonds, B Janes, J Simmons, C Gilbert, T Notman (C Bonds 59), J Tucker, J Oulton; J Hodge (T Concu 17), R Brown (Capt) (M Gidlow 59), C Williams (M Gidlow 32-41 blood), E Pascoe, L Hattam (B Howe 53), M Grubb, S Stevens, B Fox.

Redruth: Tries, Stevens, Simmons, Grubb, Cons, Simmonds (2), Pens, Simmonds (2)

Referee: Ben Rayner (RFU)

Crowd: 157