BY winning this highly entertaining game at Polson The Bees must surely have shattered any lingering hopes of promotion still harboured by Redruth or Cambridge. Also in winning it The Bees became the only club to beat the Launceston outfit both home and away this season. But for some sloppy Launceston tackling the result could have gone the other way but in the end the superior fitness of the fully professional Midlanders in the last 20 minutes gave them a well deserved victory and almost certain promotion, writes Tony Randel.

The Cornish All Blacks showed their intentions right from the kick off with a Jon Fabian drop-goal attempt from long range that only just went wide. Straight from the restart Bees winger Simon Hunt gathered a ball well inside his own half and started to weave through a number of pretty half-hearted tackle attempts to touch down. The conversion came from the metronomic boot of former Bristol man Mark Woodrow who heads the league's kicking leader board.

Two penalties soon after in quick succession from Adam Staniforth brought the hosts to within a point of the visitors and appeared to give them new heart. A great bursting run through the centre by Gary Kingdom put Marc Dibble clear but despite his speed he was hauled down just short by speedster Mitch Culpin. Another good piece of Launceston play, again involving Dibble, saw Mike Myerscough on the break before off-loading to Tom Skelding who was held up over the line.

The Cornish pressure was beginning to tell and a score looked very much on the cards. It came in 22nd minute after a scrum on the right. A series of passes between Gary Kingdom and Ryan Westren opened up the Bees defence to let Westren through to score. As Adam Staniforth, who was having a good day with his boot so far, added the extras the Cornish All Blacks took the lead 13-7.

That galvanised The Bees into action as they gained a 5m scrum from which scrum half Sam Brown made a very wayward pass. Winger Hunt again scooped up the loose ball and sliced through two or three feeble tackle attempts before scoring between the posts for Woodrow to add the extras.

To rub salt into the Launceston wounds they lost a lineout on 38 minutes for Bees centre Rob Petty to make the break through some more inadequate tackling before sending a long looping pass to full back Reece Spee to hurtle down the wing. When Woodrow converted the score was 21-13 to visitors at half time – it should never have been!

Would half time 'words' in the changing room be sufficient to address the Cornish All Blacks ability to make telling tackles? It did seem so. The hosts piled on the pressure and forced the visitors into conceding three kickable penalties but Staniforth only landed one to bring the score to 16-21.

The Cornish All Blacks had two half chances when Gary Kingdom again got away on a break but was left isolated when brought down. Another move involving most of the back line came to naught when the final pass was adjudged forward!

The last quarter 'was all Bees'. Despite Launceston bringing on all the 'new legs' they could the superior fitness and physicality of the full-time men began to show. The hosts were pinned back in their own half for most of the time, the pack was wheeled a couple of times and more scores for the Bees seemed inevitable. The first came after number eight Bob Connolly had joined the back line and went over to give the Bees the bonus point. The second came in injury time when Culpin made a break from the halfway line, chipped over the defence, gathered the ball and passed to hooker Jack Preece as he was tackled for the hooker to touch down.

An entertaining game and a fair result. If both sides had taken all their chances the score would have been nearer to 50-35 but, as it was, the larger than expected Good Friday crowd went away certainly having had their money's worth.

Scorers:

Cornish All Blacks: try, Westren; con, Staniforth; pens, Staniforth (3)

Birmingham Solihull: tries, Hunt (2), Spee, Connolly, Preece; cons, Woodrow (5)

Cornish All Blacks: Jon Fabian, Marc Dibble, Gary Kingdom, Ryan Westren, Hamish Smales, Adam Staniforth, (Jake Murphy 77), Lewis Webb, Jason Bolt, Darren Semmens (Glenn Cooper 48), Keith Brooking (Andy Knight 61, Brooking 73), Tom Skelding (Bryn Jenkins 75), Mike Myerscough, Mike Rawlings (Josh Lord 48), Tom Rawlings and Sam Hocking

Birmingham Solihull; Reece Spee, Simon Hunt, Rob Tomlinson, Rod Petty, Mitch Culpin, Mark Woodrow, San Brown, Matt Long, Jack Preece, Craig Voisey, Alex Davidson (capt) (Adam Clayton 80), Shaun Pammenter, Chris Brightwell, Russell Earnshaw and Ivo Halavatau (Rob Connolly 40); reps not used, Andy Lawrence, Lewis Ward, Ben Phillips

Referee: Mr Rowan Kitt (RFU).