Tough Day at the Office for the 2's

Saturday saw Clitheroe's 2nd team travel to the seaside to play Thornton Cleveley's 2nd team, a team who last year finished mid-table in 3N yet somehow have found themselves in 4N this season for some unexplainable reason.

The game saw Clitheroe field a stronger team than their trip to Fylde with Nat Dickinson [pictured] returning from Italy to play 6, Niall Spence also making an appearance at 8. Dave Watson returned and Gary Fernandez played his first game for the club at wing. Adam Penney played hooker and Tom Hardman and Will Jones at props respectively. A solid bench of experience followed in the form of Roger Holmes, Steve Dowson, Simon Gretton, Kirk Kenyon and Pundy.

TC started the game strong in what would be a theme all afternoon. Breaking the defensive line due to missed tackles and capitalising on space they scored within 7 minutes, but missed the conversion.

From the restart TC managed to score again instantly due to again poor defending. This time slotting the conversion.

TC relied on missed tackles to score more tries but Clitheroe stood firm and improved gradually in defensive.

TC managed to put 45 points on the score liken before half time. Clitheroe for the dying moments of the half pressed hard and used the forwards to make yards with Dan Jones and Will Jones barraging foreword. Daniel Smudge attempted a dash for the line and was stopped by an offside player from an obvious try to which the referee awarded a penally try.

The second half started and TC were the better side but Clitheroe did offer a fresh defensive play and some glimmers of hope with a team still developing. Niall Spence at 8 playing fantastically rushing the ball foreword gaining valuable yards. Adam Penney saw himself get injured and Pundy was summoned at Tighthead with Will Jones at Hooker. The scrum now an immovable block. This allowed Spence, who was MOM to take advantage in his new potion with support from Nat D and Danny Cowgill let them attempt some decent attack play, Jamie Taylor pulled up from a 40 yard dash with cramp and was subbed for Kirk Kenyon who returns after injury. Although you wouldn't know that given his performance for the last 10. Dave Watson pulled up and Simon Gretton was able to play also coming back from Injury. Graham Hansen also took a nock whilst valiantly defending.

The second half still saw TC put more points on the board but Clitheroe did offer improvement in defence and showed some attacking spirit in what was a tough day out. But against a team that faced Clitheroe 1's last season the scoreline was slightly incidental as TC will be one of the stronger teams in the division - especially at home.