In front of a rugby-starved crowd bolstered by the presence of Kenilworth's former Colts from 1970 to present day, the home side continued to keep the pressure on at the top of Midlands One West table with a convincing win over a tenacious Ludlow side.

Only two points separated the teams back in October when a slightly depleted Kenilworth side snatched victory in the shadow of Ludlow Castle, so they were well aware of the challenge that the visitors could pose.

The home side set the tone from the start with their pack gaining an early advantage in the set piece and fly half Harry O'Brien using the strong wind to pin Ludlow back into their defensive third.

After just five minutes, a trademark kick to the corner and driving lineout saw skipper Bobby Thompson score the first try with O'Brien missing the difficult conversion.

Kenilworth were pushing the Ludlow back at pace in the scrums and Thompson burst clear five minutes later from the back of an advancing scrummage.

He slipped the ball inside for scrum half Sam Peppitt to score, O Brien with the successful kick. Ludlow were soon down to 14 men with their number 8 carded for a dangerous spear tackle on Adam Carey.

Hooker Carey took his revenge shortly afterwards from another driving lineout and crashed over for an unconverted try to make it 17-0 at half time.

Ludlow fought hard at the breakdown and were certainly a fit side, however they did seem to lack a bit of ballast up front and after a series of drives skipper Thompson sidestepped his way over for his second try.

After another bullocking run from the outstanding Thompson, the ball was moved right to returning winger Ben Harrison who forced his way over for the final try of the game and a final score of 27-0 to the home side.

The only sour note was a late red card for young replacement back Jack Rawlins for a dangerous tackle, similar to the one that only resulted in a yellow for the opposition earlier on.

Kenilworth dominated most facets of the game and probably could have turned the screw to score more points.

However conditions were challenging and they will be satisfied with vital bonus point victory to keep the pressure on Stoke and Lichfield who sit above them in the league (albeit Kenilworth have two games in hand).

Next week they travel to Malvern, a side they beat relatively comfortably in the first half of the season.

Kenilworth's second XV thrashed their Ludlow counterparts 64-0 with their ever-growing group of French students from Warwick University adding tenacity and style to an already impressive squad.

The Women's 1XV match at Harrogate was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and the Women's 2XV had a great match at home to Market Harborough on Sunday afternoon.