Welwyn 11 - Letchworth 10

Welwyn claimed the scalp of old rivals Letchworth in the Herts Presidents' Cup.

The club won last Sunday's preliminary round tie by a solitary point, edging through to the first round proper 11-10 thanks to a last-gasp penalty by Gareth Hughes. Welwyn's reward for beating their Garden City rivals in the opening phase of the county's senior knockout competition is a trip to Stevenage Town next month.

Although from a league above Welwyn, Letchworth lie in mid-table in London Two North and the home side were quietly confident of pulling off a cup shock. This assumption was based on their narrow defeat by two points away to Letchworth in the same competition last year. They achieved their goal, but only just against a mixed strength Letchworth team blending veteran forwards with an inexperienced back line.

Welwyn got the perfect start with a try almost straight away. They kicked off deep on a bright but bitterly cold afternoon at Handside Lane and Letchworth found touch on the 22. Stalwart lock Austen Cox took the line-out and the ball was moved swiftly across the backs for Jonathan Child to race up from full back to score in the right-hand corner for a 5-0 lead after just two minutes.

Welwyn's forwards began to dominate in the loose, the line-outs and scrums so that Letch-worth's possession was stifled. The pack took good scrum ball against the head in a critical defensive position, which allowed Welwyn to force play deep into Letchworth territory with a superb clearance kick to touch. Letchworth were penalised at the ensuing line-out and Hughes duly kicked the three points to make it 8-0. The visitors' heavier pack then forced an error on the Welwyn line and from the resulting scrummage Letchworth scored an unconverted try to cut the deficit to 8-5 at the interval.

The half-time pep talk seemed to galvanise Letchworth and it needed good work from Ian Ward and Cox in the line-out to stem the visitors' attacks. Within 10 minutes of the restart Welwyn brought on a number of replacements and there was a significant reshuffling in the backs. This coincided with Letchworth starting to string together some dangerous moves which almost resulted in scores. Fortunately strong defence by Welwyn repelled the visitors.

Welwyn countered with a splendid turnover by Mark Harris which took play along the backs to the right wing and only a marginally forward pass thwarted a try by the corner flag. The home side attacked from deep a few minutes later and were unfortunate when a kick by Child dribbled into touch with no Letchworth player in the vicinity. Hughes missed a penalty from a subsequent Letchworth transgression. Letchworth immediately kicked deep and gained a scrum on Welwyn's 22. From the set-piece, Letchworth scrum-half James Tirrell picked up the ball and ran some 30 metres without a hand being laid on him to score a superb try by the posts. This gave the visitors a slender 10-8 lead with virtually no time left.

Welwyn attacked straight from the restart and won a penalty for Letchworth killing the ball. Hughes successfully kicked the three points to give Welwyn an 11-10 lead on the final whistle.