OLD Halesonians suffered their second defeat on the bounce as they went down 14-3 at Camp Hill at Hansluck Green.

The home side played to their strengths and did enough to out muscle and humble a lacklustre Hales side. Camp Hill had two chances to take an early lead with shots at goal, but fly half Craig Quick missed both opportunities. Against the run of play, the home side took the lead after 16 minutes when a loose pass from Hales winger Luke Smith was seized upon by his opposite man who continued to race untouched to score under the posts.

This time Quick was on target, to give Camp Hill a 7-0 lead. It remained that way for the rest of the half with Hales having significantly more possession and territory only for a catalogue of mistakes, particularly at set-pieces, to thwart them each time they threatened. The visitors were kicking themselves at halftime for not capitalising on their opportunities and began the second half with more gusto. However, another score against the run of play saw them fall 14 points behind. Spotting tight-forwards defending the blindside, Quick raced around two players and offloaded to winger Alex Cook who beat the one-on-one with the last Hales defender. Quick was again on target with the kick.

Hales put in a spirited fight-back as the defeat loomed large and played some excellent running rugby. However, this was often disjointed and unstructured resulting in several turnover penalties when players were isolated. Hales did manage a consolatory penalty with 18 minutes to go but failed to add anything more as the game slipped away. Old Halesonians Team: Head, Davies, Dempsey (Taylor 50 minutes), Western, Ford, Adshead (Samra 60 minutes), Gaynham, Tideswell, Wagstaff, Harris, Smith, Leach, Cox, Curtis (Church 70 minutes), Rose.