Blackheath claimed a vital victory over Cinderford in a very tense encounter at the Beavis Memorial ground.
The opening exchanges were well contested but following a series of pick and goes visiting prop Andrew Boye forced his way for the opening score, which Tom Ffitch converted. Play continued to be a tactical affair with plenty of kicking out of hand, before Joe Winfield was on target for the home team with a penalty to make it 3-7, as this remained the score at half-time.
Ffitch stretched the visitor’s lead with a penalty straight from the re-start, before a charge-down and return eventually led to a try for Blackheath second-row Tom Everard, which Ffitch converted to make it 3-17 after 47 minutes. Winfield and Ffitch then exchanged penalties before a yellow card for Blackheath’s Archie Holland saw Cinderford scoring tries from Nathan Taylor and Matthew Jones, along with a conversion for Winfield to bring the home team right back into it at 18-20 after 68 minutes of play.
It was the visitors however who ended the stronger and they closed out the game with another penalty from Ffitch and a third try from No8 Tom Baldwin, which Ffitch converted.
Cinderford; Matthew Jones, Sam Smith, Jake Shortland, Max Knight, Will Baldwin, Joe Winfield, Tom Knight, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, Shaun Knight, Danny Hodge, Callum Thompson, Tyler Jerrum, Dec Fissenden, George Evans.
Repls; Harry Edwards, James Elliot, Joe Mullis, Sam Allford, Jamie Forrester.