The side was surprisingly settled looking despite a number of attempted retirements. It was experienced and talented if a little short on pre season prep!

The visitors were the newly promoted Bolton outfit who breezed last years division 5 competition.

Clitheroe started brightly, made use of the home hillside and opened the scoring with a well worked try for Dan ‘sumdge’ Smith who looked at home in the nine shirt.

Perhaps guilty of over confidence or trying too hard the mighty twos started to ‘try’ things when the game was crying out for a more direct approach. The steady flow of mistakes allowed Bolton to work themselves back into the game. Three unanswered tries well and truly swung the balance in their favour by the thirty minute mark.

Any team containing no fewer than five previous maroon and gold captains with a sixth on the touch line barking orders will roll over. After some stern words Kirky led his troops into the bolton 22 where a rare Clitheroe penalty was capitalised on as Matthew Furbush crashed through the defence and Nathan Peel added the extras.

At the half it was 19-14 to the travellers. Half time was a simple affair with Captain Kirk threatening to feed us to the Klingons if we didn’t start playing simple rugby. Our young fullback Jack Stanley who had acquitted himself well in both attack and defence swapped with another debutante Joe Wilkinson.
Both colts making their mark in the senior squad .

From the kick off Clitheroe returned to simple direct rugby and were rewarded by the beautiful slight of Smudge jinking his way up the pitch beating 6 defenders to finish off a period of sustained pressure. Again Peel converted.

This nudged the hosts ahead. Credit to Bolton as they roused themselves again and turned on the pressure. Will Jones made way for Big tasty and Tom Hardman moved to tighthead.

Bolton continued to work hard and were rewarded with two converted tries. These hammer blows had the cavaliers rocking, the players out on their feet. Matt Furbush departed for a breather a Garth Spencer came on looking focused and sharp. Phil Winstanley returning after a 15 plus year hiatus swapping with the ever reliable Austin Wensley

At this point the oldest of the captains on the pitch came into his own. Andrew “Tubber” Thornber can only be described as a legend and is a great example of what the club is about. His first contribution was, despite the new scrum feeding law, to take a Bolton scrum on the head in a dangerous position allowing Clitheroe to clear their lines. His second was to throw a line out in the enemy 22 not straight (a little harshly in the writers opinions as the Clitheroe lineout was outstanding all afternoon). But the way he picked himself straight up and then threw himself into the resulting scrum was an example to everyone about make a mistake make up for it.

The pack came back to life following Tubbers direct running and was soon rumbling again and for the next 15 minutes took control of the game. In this period Garth Spencer was rewarded for a strong return to the fold with a well worked try following some strong breakdown work from Lewis Riley and Nial Spence. Peel added the extras game on.

Bolton worked themselves back into the Clitheroe 22 and had a lineout 15 metres out. Danny Cowgill who was tremendous in the set piece stole the lineout (along with pretty much every other lineout Bolton threw) and the danger passed.

Clitheroe worked up the pitch and with less than 10 minutes remaining were just ahead thanks to a difficult penalty from Peel. Last year’s skipper Jamie Taylor hobbled off after some hard running and will jones returned to the fray. By this point Adam Penny had joined Harry Procter in making their bolton debuts. A good gesture by the club as Bolton had a bare fifteen at kick off. Smudge followed up some great work from the pack and crashed over before peel ended the affair with a try of his own.

Lots of positives for the cavaliers to build on with a solid set piece and Lacey backs as the season gets older this should be a tough outfit to beat.

Report by WRJ