With all the fixture changes this weekend it’s perhaps fair to say that it was the Burton ‘B’ XV who missed out as they travelled away for the fifth successive week to play a side that turned out to be a young colts side. Yardley and District had both far too much skill and pace for the ageing Burton side, who were short of several of their younger quicker players.

With no recognised No 8, scrum-half, fly-half, wingers or full-back Burton knew they would always have a hard struggle on their hands, but the youthful competition resulted in no contest.

With the writing already on the wall the game started and proceeded with Burton trying frantically to stem any scores. While the Burton pack, particularly the front row of Gary Potts, Chris Cooke and Martin ‘Sheep’ Bird made life very uncomfortable for the younger opposition, while Pat Winter and Mark Topliss controlled the lineouts with displays like Russian gymnasts. But in the backs Burton were run silly as Yardley’s pace and youth ran riot and only a great tackling display by Steve Hodge, Chris Gilmore and Tony Mumford stopped the inevitable cricket score from arriving.

Burton’s solitary score came from Sam McNab, but this didn’t really reflect on the efforts put in by those available Burton players.