MALVERN under 17s crashed to their first defeat of the season, losing 46-19 at Birmingham and Solihull.

They were soundly beaten by a well-coached Bees side, who were superior in every department apart from the scrum.

In the first five minutes, the home left winger kicked a big penalty from close to halfway and rounded off a fine backs move with a try in the corner before converting from the touchline.

Malvern hit back with a converted try when Kai Allton crossed after Laurie Essenhigh took a quick tap penalty and ran at the defence.

But they fell further behind when trying to run the ball out from under their own posts only to lose possession and concede a penalty with the Bees creating an overlap to the left.

Two more tries from Malvern errors in five minutes before half-time compounded the damage.

With the Spring Lane side 27-7 down, they conceded another effort in the left corner early in the second period.

But Malvern finally put together their only good spell playing down the slight slope, managing to combine territory and possession for 10 minutes.

Tries by Myles Edwards and Nathan Beasley-Suffolk, the first converted by Jack Travis, reduced the deficit to 13 points.

But the pressure could not be maintained through the final quarter and Bees ran in two more converted tries although one was fortunate.

The referee indicated a Malvern penalty at a ruck but then deemed advantage to be over and, as the visitors’ defence stopped, the Bees left winger, who scored more than 40 points, rubbed even more salt in the wounds.