Upton travelled to their furthest away venue of the league season to Manor Park in Nuneaton and unfortunately failed to improve on their Warwickshire record but it was not for the want of trying.

Upton took the lead after 8mins when No10 Marek Willis made a break from half way and then Alex Pimlow wove his usual 'magic' to run in a try under the posts and Willis converted

Upton continued to mount attack after attack but were denied futher points due to losing the services of Willis through injury, losing possession at crucial times, luck in the tackle but mostly through the lack of consistency of the 'the man in the middle' in all areas of the game especially in his 'communication'. By half time Park had got to within one point of Upton through two penalties

Manor Park came out with their tails up at the restart and soon scored a disputed try to take the lead following several driving mauls by their pack

Upton showed the perfect response straight away and there was going to be no try denial through an alleged forward pass or knock-on as Chris O'Neil gathered the ball 22metres out, it kept to himself as he drove on and scored in the corner

That was the last of Upton's chances as they weren't allowed to get anywhere near the Park line and Park were 'gifted' three more penalties. Perhaps we must learn to send the Warwickshire refs a few more Christmas cards before venturing into Warwickshire again!

Despite the result, Manor Park proved good hosts on this our first time of meeting and Upton look forward to retuning the hospitality in the second half of the season - hopefully by then we shall have our changing and social facilities replaced and reopened

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