WILL Sparrow was on fire as Ludlow made it two wins out of two in Midlands 3 West (North).

The freescoring full-back, who had claimed 17 points in the previous week’s win over Eccleshall, this time piled up a personal haul of 26 as the Linneymen hung on to a spirited 31-26 verdict at Edwardians in Solihull.

Sparrow scored a hat-trick of tries, two in the first half and then a brilliant length-of-the-field burst in the second, and also added a penalty and four conversions.

He scored all 17 first-half points for Ludlow, twice adding the extras to his two touchdowns after swapping early penalties with Edwardians.

The home side trimmed the deficit back to 17-13 at the start of the second half but Sparrow intercepted to jet away to celebrate his treble, and Mark Williams added a fourth try for the bonus point before Edwardians finished strongly, scoring two late tries as Ludlow survived some serious pressure.

A last-minute try from second-row forward Alfie Meredith clinched a table-turning victory for Church Stretton, who overturned an 11-0 half-time deficit to beat Telford 15-11 in a late, late show in Midlands 4 West (North).

Stretton made the better start but they were unable to score during a dominant period. Full-back Tom Ward came closest as he broke through but was taken down five metres from the line. Telford, the bigger side, slowly worked their way into the game through their strong pack, and won two penalties to kick themselves into a 6-0 lead.

They extended their lead through a slightly fortuitous try. A hack through bounced up kindly, before a knock on was missed as the Hornets touched down in the corner. Stretton winger Danny Harley was harshly adjudged to have committed a late tackle as Telford scored and was sent to the sin-bin. The try was unconverted to give Telford an 11–0 advantage.

The Samurai upped their game after the break, matching their counterparts in the set-piece and carrying strongly in open play. The work from the forwards gave the Samurai an attacking platform, and Jamie Bates and Marcus Bedson started to orchestrate things with runners Will Forbes-Lee and Brad Hughes a constant menace.

The boot of Tom Chard got Stretton on the scoresheet with a penalty, but they had to reshuffle their back line as they lost Ward, Dan Harris and Jack Titley to injury. They finally got the try they deserved with around ten minutes left as Forbes-Lee scythed through to touch down under the posts. Chard slotted the conversion to leave them a point behind as the momentum shifted.

The Samurai left it late as they grabbed the winning score with a minute left. A strong carry by Regan Jordan was followed by a chip and go by Brad Hughes, who managed to gather his own kick before offloading to Chard. He shipped the ball to Will Malcolm, who bounced off two tacklers before slipping an offload to Meredith who dived to score in the corner.