OLD Halesonians RFC suffered their first defeat of the season in Midlands One West as they went down 18-13 at Stratford.

On a frustrating afternoon, the hosts grabbed an early lead thanks to a penalty before skipper Rich Taylor went over to put Hales in front.

But missed tackles allowed Stratford to draw level and it was only Hales’ domination of the scrum which gave them the upper hand at the interval through Tim Breakwell’s unconverted try.

Injuries in key positions began to mount in the second-half with full-back Steve Powell and Joe Oxford both leaving the field and flanker Loz Breeze picking up a yellow card.

Stratford were twice able to exploit weaknesses in the Hales’ line with rolling mauls and the two tries handed them the win.

Old Hales will now look to pick themselves up for the visit of Stoke this Saturday.

The seconds continued their unbeaten start with a 53-0 trouncing of Ludlow.

After a fairly even opening, Jon Harris began the scoring with a try which was converted by Adam Whiteman.

Seb Rose finished off a nice move by the backs and Matt Weaver added try number three before Pete Lewis got into the act just before the break, diving on the ball to score following a rolling maul.

Ludlow tried to fight back early in the second-half but Hales were now able to exploit gaps at the back.

Dan Levenue and Ollie Kealey both added their names to the scoresheet before Rose and Lewis got their second of the game.

The final try came from Luke Gaynham as he exploited a gap in the Ludlow defence and raced 30 metres for his touch down.

Jamie Leech scored a hat-trick of tries as the fourths demolised Worcester 73-3.

Matt Wagstaff and Ben Roberts scored two each with Chris Shuker, Stuart Homer, Gavin Evans and Mark Bailey the other men to cross.

The Colts were beaten 16-10 by Luctonians in a hard fought contest.