WOODRUSH kept themselves in the promotion hunt with a 11-8 away win over Cheltenham North last Saturday.

They had to dig deep to claim a valuable win on the road at a ground where they have had little success over the years.

Cheltenham sent Woodrush crashing down to Midlands Four at the end of the 2012/13 season and so it proved a sweet response from the men from Icknield Street and saw that they completed the double for the season over their Gloucestershire opposition.

Marcus Tomlinson opened Woodrush’s account after one minute with three points from the boot, but North replied with a well-worked try after 12 minutes.

A try wide out from coach Jon Ford nudged Woodrush back into the lead on 15 minutes, but try as both sides might to play with some pattern, the game was constantly broken up by the referee’s whistle.

The score remained the same until the home side managed to slot a penalty ten minutes into the second half to even up the scores.

Woodrush managed another penalty from Tomlinson two minutes later.

The only real talking point from here on in was how the game merited five yellow cards, three of which were for Woodrush.

Bedworth, as expected, edged out current league leaders Dunlop to compress the top three to within two points of each other.

Woodrush will now take on fourth-placed Pershore this Saturday as the battle for the top two starts to hot up.