National League 1

For the first 40 minutes of a rain-sodden game, it seemed as if Henley were going to pull off one of the shock results of the season against high-riding Pertemps Bees at Dry Leas.

But in the end, the visitors from Birmingham edged ahead to complete a 19-17 victory.

The cornerstone of the Hawks' forward success was their lineout play. Jumping at No 2, new lock Steve Green had a dream debut and it was fitting that he should be on hand to finish off a jinking break by Barry Reeves to open the scoring after 25 minutes.

The fly half added the extra points and ten minutes later increased the Hawks' lead to ten points from a penalty close to the posts.

Bees stepped up a gear in the second period, scoring 19 points in as many minutes through tries from Dave Knight, Martin Davies and Oxford University's Canadian international prop Kevin Tkachuk.

But Henley kept their game together, and ten minutes from time, leading try-scorer Nnamdi Obi scored a superb try, converted by Reeves to salvage a bonus point.

It was his 12th try of the season and rounded off a wonderful 24 hours for the winger, who has been called up to play for the England sevens side at the IRB tournament in New Zealand.