Bill Beaumont Cup

Division One South

Gloucestershire 36

Kent 20

GLOUCESTERSHIRE retained their status as a top tier county with this comfortable win over Kent at Cinderford' s Dockham Road ground.

In the battle to avoid relegation it is Kent who will be playing in Division Two next season.

The game was error-strewn with handling and passing mistakes from both sides, but it also featured some excellent tries, with Cinderford's Nev Codlin the stand-out player.

Kent took the lead through a penalty but home scrum-half Sam Arnott burrowed through a maul to place the ball firmly on the Kent line for a try. Mike Wilcox converted.

From the restart, Gloucestershire made a hash of trying to run out of defence, lost possession and Simpson raced through a yawning gap before putting Kent flanker James Lindfield in for a try.

Simpson converted, but the lead was short-lived as Gloucestershire centre George Boulton capitalised on a Nev Codlin break to touch down. Wilcox's second conversion gave the home side a 14-10 lead at the interval.

Codlin scored the try of the match four minutes into the second half. The full-back exploited space down the blindside of a maul and cut both inside and outside three players to race away for a magnificent solo effort that was converted by Wilcox.

For a full match report, read The Forester.