A LAST minute conversion saw a much-changed Ledbury lose the first-leg of their North Midlands Shield cup tie away at Bromyard last weekend. 

With the majority of the first-team players away on the annual tour to Chinnor, a number of ex-players returned to action to honour the fixture away at Bromyard on Saturday. 

Both sides did provide an entertaining and tense game in front of a large crowd and the visitors struck first when Jock Welch crashed over, but Bromyard soon retaliated with a looping run from out wide to score under the posts (7-5). 

Struggling with a greasy ball on a difficult pitch, it was a case of keeping it tight for Ledbury and that produced try number two when Rob Anscombe manoeuvred a score from a driving maul (7-10).

As the unfamiliar Ledbury side settled, winger Luke Clarke seized his chance out wide and he raced in for a third unconverted try for what was potentially a surprise lead given the circumstances.

The score remained 7-15 heading into the second-half and despite going down to 14-men after Tom Price's yellow card, Ledbury scored a fourth try through Jamie Rayfield as the lead stretched to 12 points at 10-22. 

But Ledbury seemed to lose a bit of discipline from there on in and another sin-bin saw Matt Hallett sent to the naughty step for an illegal hack through.

A galvanised Bromyard seized their chance resulting in a try from halfway (17-22) and with eight minutes to go Ledbury were holding on as the home side threw everything at them before a well-worked try out wide brought the scores level.

The final kick of the game was a very difficult but excellently executed conversion from the touchline to grant the home side the honours at the death (24-22).

The return leg will take place at Ledbury this weekend with a 2.15PM kick-off.