LEDBURY made it four league wins in a row on Saturday as they battled past a stubborn Alcester side in their Counties 1 Midlands West (South) encounter.

Ledbury began well and Rob Gummer scored from a driving lineout maul to give the visitors an early try that Jack Hughes converted (0-7).

But Alcester replied almost immediately when a dropped pass by Ledbury was seized upon by the speedy winger, who squeezed over for a try in the corner (5-7).

Despite this minor blip, Ledbury dominated the set piece and it wasn’t long before in-form Gummer received the ball out wide and managed to break the line of defence to put winger Charlie Pallett over in the corner for a try, again converted by Hughes (5-14).

Ledbury were on top on the scoreboard and were soon a man up numerically later in the half as fly-half Ed Gough was sent to the sin-bin for words exchanged with the referee. Ledbury's Josh Bishop soon took full advantage by scoring try number three of the afternoon (5-19).

The away side had numerous chances to extend their lead and turned down three kickable penalties in an attempt to find more tries but dogged defence from Alcester meant the scores remained 19-5 at half-time.

Ledbury were made to pay for their inaccuracies at the start of the second-half. Alcester scored immediately from the restart when their centre sliced through the Ledbury defence rather too easily to touch down (12-19).

But Alcester's momentum was halted when Ed Bennion caught the defence napping by taking a quick tap penalty before carrying 20 metres and giving Harry Harris the scoring pass to crash over (12-24).

Back came Alcester, however, as the see-saw nature of the game continued. Alcester backs were combining well, making life difficult for Ledbury and the forwards were causing havoc too, allowing their flanker to cross for a try (19-24).

Alcester, roared on by a vocal home crowd, sensed that they had Ledbury on the ropes, however against the run of play, Pallett conjured up a break from half-way and the ball eventually found Bennion in the corner for a fifth and decisive try (19-29).

Ledbury remain second in the table, 14 points back from runaway league leaders Luctonians 2s.

They are back in action on Saturday at home to Earlsdon.