BANBURY blew the Midlands 3 East South title for the second time, losing 19-18 at Daventry, and again it was poor kicking that cost them dear.

They must now pick themselves up for a play-off at Midlands 3 East North runners-up Ilkeston on Saturday, but it won't easy after this agonising defeat.

Three weeks earlier Bulls had lost 11-10 to the final kick at Northampton Old Scouts when victory would have given them the title.

That defeat saw full back Pete Flemming miss a conversion from in front of the posts and lightning struck twice when fly half Tony Hurst did the same at Daventry.

Indeed, such was Banbury's lack of confidence in front of goal that they consistently passed up very kickable penalty chances.

For all their ineptitude with the boot, Banbury outscored Daventry by three tries to one and did enough to win the game.

But their hosts dug in and in fly half Alex Rose, they had a kicker who showed Bulls how it should be done.

Rose punished Banbury with two penalties inside seven minutes, both after the visitors were caught offside.

Bulls have tried to play expansive rugby all season and showed this in patches, particularly before the break.

Winger Sean Allwood cut inside at pace on 11 minutes and although he was stopped by a high tackle, lock Matt McNally was in support.

His popped pass found hooker Rory Dymond, who dived over.

The try was just to the right of the posts, but Hurst hooked his conversion wide as Daventry rushed out.

Banbury then had their best spell of the game with centres James Taylor and Andy Collett combining to great effect.

Crucially, they could only add one try to their score and could have slotted at least two penalties.

Try No 2, though, was a classic when it came after 28 minutes.

Allwood applied the finishing touch wide on the left after some fantastic handling from Collett and flanker Sean Bannister among others.

Banbury continued to create chances, but their lead was just 10-6.

Daventry were 13-10 up at the break, however, after capitalising on Flemming's woeful 39th-minute drop-out.

The hosts penned Banbury back in their 22 before Rose found centre Richard Ball with a reverse pass and he cantered over.

Rose converted, while No 8 Alistair Brighton almost found left wing Joe Draper on the counter-attack.

Banbury scored a third try through skipper Ed Cummings's 51st-minute push-over effort after some concerted pressure, but couldn't gain any breathing space.

Four minutes later, Rose slotted his third penalty, but the pendulum swung again when Flemming finally landed one for Banbury from close range.

Rose kicked his fourth penalty on 67 minutes to make it 19-18 and Bulls became increasingly frantic.

Player-coach Simon Purnell came on in search of a winning kick, but Bulls were left heart-broken at the end.