EVESHAM and Bromsgrove rugby clubs celebrated county triumphs in the North Midlands finals at Dudley Kingswinford.

Evesham won the North Midlands Vase after pipping Cleobury Mortimer 10-9 in the opening final.

And Bromsgrove clinched the inaugural North Midlands Cup Plate after recording a 29-17 success against hosts Dudley.

But there was a mixture of pride and disappointment for Kidderminster Carolians who slipped to an 18-13 defeat against a strong Bridgnorth in the North Midlands Shield.

Evesham skipper Nathan Chambers saluted his side’s defensive qualities after they avenged a 27-3 defeat to Cleobury in February’s Midlands Junior Vase semi-final.

A try from centre Matthew Watson and five points from the boot of Mike Harris gave Evesham a second county Vase triumph in six years.

Evesham played for 20 minutes of the second-half with just 14 men.

Evesham made a fine start when an early clearance kick from Mike Harris was not gathered cleanly and Mike Diston swept it up from the ground and broke free.

The covering defence managed to catch Diston, however, he found Watson with an offload who raced under the posts for the opening score. Harris slotted the conversion to give Evesham a 7-0 lead.

Cleobury infringed at the breakdown and Harris kicked the resulting penalty to stretch the lead.

Cleobury replied with a penalty to reduce the deficit to 10-3 at half-time.

As the wind started to pick up,Cleobury managed just six points in the second-half.

Sam Shepherd was among the try-scorers for Bromsgrove, whose triumphed signalled the end for Duncan Roke, who is retiring from coaching, while Jamie Tsang and Ieaun Mustow are leaving the club.

Kidderminster Carolians director of ruby Phil Knowles was proud of his troops despite their slender defeat to Bridgnorth, the RFU Intermediate Cup runners-up.

Chris Pinner kicked a penalty for Carolinas, while second row Jack Tunstall was driven over and wing Josh Winfield scored a well-taken try.

Knowles said: “Bridgnorth have had a wonderful season, losing just once, but we gave them a very hard game.

“Despite throwing the ball around well, Bridgnorth scored from an interception and from a mistake at a re-start.”

“I felt our forwards did the job on Bridgnorth and it would be unfair to single out any of our players."

Old Halesonians won the North Midlands Cup with a 52-6 success over Whitchurch, while Woodrush lost 29-15 to Old Saltleians in the North Midlands Shield Plate. Redditch drew 12-12 against Church Stretton but won the North Midlands Vase Plate after a goal-kicking contest.