NOTTINGHAM...22 SEDGLEY PARK...17: A THIRD defeat in a row for Sedgley - and to the team directly below them - cut Park's lead at the top of the division to just two points.

Despite a much more committed performance, Nottingham inched closer to the leaders with just eight games remaining.

Sedgley elected to face the strong wind in the first half and, for a while, all went well, as the home team missed scoring chances.

Young Scots stand-off Neil Stenhouse was off target with two early penalties and Sedgley almost scored an interception try when Dave McCormack got his fingertips to a careless pass.

A charging run by the Nottingham captain, Kiwi Craig Hammond, took play into the Sedgley 22, from where Stenhouse opened the scoring with a simple penalty, but a break by the same player went unrewarded when No8 Mark Easter dropped the ball in front of the posts.

As the game entered its second quarter Stenhouse broke again, this time he was rewarded as full-back Will Logan was at his elbow to score between the posts.

It remained 10-0 until, with ten minutes to the break, Sedgley were attacking on half way when a contentious forward-pass decision, called by the touch-judge, gave Nottingham a scrum from which they attacked down the right.

The move seemed to have fizzled out when the ball was hacked forward into the in-goal area and, on the intervention of the same touch-judge, a penalty try was awarded for interference.

There is no doubt that a Nottingham player was barged off the ball, but he was at least five metres off-side, in front of the kicker.

Even 17-0 may not have been too big a deficit, but Sedgley gifted Nottingham a try on the stroke of half-time.

Another harmless looking kick down the right wing found two Sedgley defenders rooted to the spot and winger Ben Murphy collected the ball to touch down with ease.

With the wind advantage and a rain squall adding to Nottingham's discomfort at the start of the second half, Ryno Ueckermann quickly reduced the gap by three points.

And the first Tigers' try was not long in coming and what a monster effort from Tim Fourie it was, bouncing off three opponents in a five-metre charge for the line.

At 10-22, the gap suddenly appeared bridgeable, but Sedgley were kept at bay by some good Nottingham defence.

The home team played the possession game better than Sedgley, who kicked less well down-wind and chances were missed.

Ueckermann hit a post with a penalty kick, winger Jon Lowdon had a running chance but lacked the pace to go 70 metres, and Nottingham were prepared to defend at all costs, losing a player to the sin-bin in the process.

The defence did crack, in the end, but Gareth Roberts' converted try was just too late and a fine game ended with a great cheer from the huge crowd.

SEDGLEY: De Jager; Bullough; Voortman; Hassan; Lowdon; Ueckermann; McCormack; Roberts G; Oxley; Thomas; Arnold; Senior; Lloyd; Yates; Fourie. Subs: Roberts P; Wilkinson; Keys; Pinnick.