Blackheath 25 Birmingham Moseley 32.

A spirited effort from Blackheath, given that the hosts found themselves 16 points in arrears on two occasions, but not quite enough to overcome a Moseley side whose first half performance had given them enough daylight to hold out for victory.

Open and flowing throughout, though not without plenty of errors, it was Blackheath who took the early initiative with Mark Cooke, starting at fly-half, kicking them into a six-point lead, but opposite number James Williams soon halved the deficit before, in the 25th minute, number-eight Chris Brightwell burst away from a maul to trot beneath the uprights for a lead the visitors would not relinquish.

Simon Whatling’s dummied pass on half-way saw the makeshift scrum-half nearly get to the goal-line, while at the other end an excellent last-ditch tackle from Tom Chapman denied Charles Baffour, but moments later an overthrown line-out set up a second opportunity for the Moseley right-wing who this time found no barrier to block his way, to give his side a 15-6 lead at the break.

That advantage was pushed beyond two converted scores soon after the re-start as the visitors’ solid scrum base set up Ed Sheldon, the right-wing weaving a lovely line to complete a beautifully executed ‘training ground’ move. But Blackheath responded quickly as Tom Stradwick made ground down the right-flank, before ball was moved back and forth across field and good hands from Aston Croall sent the Club second-row across to complete the action he’d started.

Moseley re-established their commanding lead in the 51st minute as fine ball retention and an excellent finish from Williams out wide gave the visitors their fourth try, but with Jake Bedding on at scrum-half, and Whatling back to his more natural fly-half position, the hosts injected the pace and urgency which brought them back into contention.

As Moseley lost Mike Penn to the sin-bin for not rolling away, George Baker and the excellent Stradwick probed before Mike Mvelase stretched out to score, and with the re-start heading into touch on the full and Blackheath winning a free-kick at the ensuing scrum, Mvelase, having a great game at full-back in his first appearance of the season, produced the inside ball for Chris Walker to cross, reducing the deficit to just four points.

However, the hosts just couldn’t regain the ball control to create another opening and as Williams added a late penalty for a personal points haul of 17 for the fly-half, Moseley saw themselves home.

Next Saturday Blackheath make their final away trip of the current season to Macclesfield. Their next home fixture is against Plymouth Albion on Saturday 22nd April which will be the Club’s Ladies’ Day.

Blackheath.

Tries: Stradwick, Mvelase, Walker.

Conv: Cooke 2.

Pens: Cooke 2.

Birmingham Moseley.

Tries: Brightwell, Baffour-Awuah, Sheldon, Williams.

Conv: Williams 3.

Pens: Williams 2.