THE curse of President's Day returned to haunt Alcester as they slumped to a disappointing 15-16 defeat to visitors Coventry Welsh.

And the result means the King's Coughton side are still searching for their first points of the new league campaign.

Playing down the slope in the first half the opening exchanges were very even with the contest being the typically tight affair.

Alcester struck first thanks to fly-half Andy Smith's penalty only for the visitors to level with a penalty of their own.

Straight from the restart though Alcester regained the lead when the Welsh defence failed to gather Smith's kick cleanly and impressive flanker Mica Pieri stole the ball and powered towards the line. Two rucks followed and, from the second, tight head Steve Lunn dived over for a try which was the final score of the half.

The start of the second period seemed to coincide with Alcester losing all cohesion at the line-out and they struggled to gain even a scrap of possession.

Within ten minutes the visitors kicked their second penalty but then had a player yellow carded following an altercation at a maul.

Although now completely on top at the scrum, the home side failed to add to their score despite having the extra man advantage.

Instead, with the sin bin period over, it was Coventry who nosed ahead with a well struck drop goal.

The Welsh driving maul was proving to be the most potent attacking weapon on show and it was the main source of all of their attempts at the Alcester line.

They went close to scoring in the corner when the ball was spun from the back of a maul but Alcester skipper Scott Carmichael was in no mood to give his try line away cheaply and thundered the attacker into touch.

But this was a brief reprise as the visitors finally forced their way over following another strong driving maul deep inside the home 22'. The conversion took Welsh 16-8 up with only a few minutes remaining.

The try ensured the majority of Alcester's heads dropped but substitute wing Stuart Whitehead proved the exception as he gathered a kick just outside his 22' before setting off on a typically mazy run that culminated in a kick upfield which he gathered superbly before racing to the line for a brilliant individual try.

Smith added the conversion but the final whistle blew with Alcester a point short following a disappointing below-par showing.

The King's Coughton men plan a big week of training ahead of their league match at Keresley on Saturday, Alcester's first visit to the Coventry club.

Alcester 2nds claimed a narrow 22-20 victory over Veseyans in a game played with incontested scrums.

Alcester's points came from wing Andy Jones, centre Jason Richings, Kiwi Ash Newdick and fly-half Jamie Randall. Randall converted one of the tries.