On the Up for Harry's Team

After the narrow loss to Aspull last week, Captain "Harry" Procter was looking for his young team to bounce back with a win against a the visitors from Leigh. It was a much changed team from the week before but undaunted, Procter challenged his players to play as a unit and that they certainly did.

Just as with last week's game, Clitheroe were out of the blocks from the first whistle, harrying the opposition into mistakes and piling on the pressure both in terms of possession and territory. With ideal field position and good quick ball, fly half Dickinson was able to dictate the play and with a sublime piece of skill from someone who normally plays as a winger, he ghosted through the narrowest of gaps and no-one could lay a finger on him as he sprinted to the line to score. He converted his own try and within 5 minutes, CLitheroe had forged a 7-0 lead. Clitheroe continued this good work for the entire first quarter of the match, with the backs, especially full back Bleasdale, running with menace from deep and the pack winning the majority of the collisions.

With a few forward passes and the odd knock-on it wasn't all going the way of the home side but perhaps they only had themselves to blame. That said, Leigh were growing in confidence and it didn't take too much longer before they found themselves on the scoresheet. In fact, around the half an hour mark, Leigh were looking the better team and with two tries in quick succession they managed to take the lead. Then, perhaps came the real turning point in the game. A relieving kick from the Leigh fly half was fielded somewhat lethargically by full back Bleasdale but boy, did he make up for it. He wound up his long loping stride and with some superb swerves and sidesteps he evaded one defender after another until the point he was deep into the opposition 22. The last defender wasn't to be beaten though and he forced Bleasdale into popping a decent pass out of the tackle to the supporting hooker Penney, who despite his tall frame, stooped well to pick up the ball and flop over the line. It was a try that had the gathered support in raptures and brought a fine end to an absorbing half of rugby.

Captain Procter made some changes at half time and it was returning winger Tom Redfearn who immediately made an impact on the game with an excellent 60 yard effort, only to be thwarted by a fine scrambling Leigh defence. As the last quarter of the game approached it was literally when the floodgates opened. First, it was a fine piece of forward play that setup a simple backs try, with the ball moving through 4 pairs of hands before reaching Redfearn, who gingerly scampered round the last man to score in the corner. Next, it was another try for the backs with Ed Rigby giving the final pass to Dickinson who dotted down for his second try of the game. Finally, flanker Adam Williamson was rewarded for his efforts with an excellent piece of persistence and skill as he charged down an attempted clearing kick. Even better than parrying it forward as he charged down he actually caught the ball on the full, much to the amazement of those watching and dropped over the line in the dying minutes.

This was an excellent performance from the 2nd team and if they could do a little more together on the training field, a good final league position is definitely within the grasp of this fine bunch of lads. Unfortunately for them, there is no 2nd team fixture next Saturday and instead they'll be cheering on the 1sts at home, or perhaps even challenging for their places, and then it will be down to preparing for the visit of Rossendale 3rds to Littlemoor a week later on the 25th September.