Clitheroe undone by PGH's Fijian connection

Preston Grasshoppers 6ths travelled to Clitheroe to play the previously unbeaten 2nd team and with the help of some Fijian speed, strength and skill, the visitors came away with the spoils.

In the absence of captain Wilkinson, club elder statesman Gretton took over the armband, ably assisted in the forwards by lock Dowson. He had a strong squad of 19, especially in the forwards and the hopes were certainly that the winning run would continue. PGH had other ideas and despite Clitheroe grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck in the opening exchanges, with props Graves and Smith and McEntyre returning at Number 8, passing beautifully between each other, the visitors pushed the ball wide to their star centre as soon as they got ball in hand and he proceeded to score in the first minute. Not the best of starts for the good sized throng of home supporters to behold and it quickly got worse as Clitheroe conceded another 2 tries from that same centre to give him his hat-trick with only 9 minutes on the clock. It was obvious what Clitheroe needed to do to stem the tide and to make ground themselves and after an excellent driving maul with Farnsworth at the forefront, Dowson powered over the line to put Clitheroe's first points on the board; 5-19 in the visitors' favour after only 12 minutes played. Hayton was brought on to try to limit PGH's attacking options out wide and despite his best efforts, PGH managed another couple of tries by the half hour mark to take the score to 5-31. Shortly afterwards, Jim Smith benefitted from Preston's indiscretions in and around the ruck when he got on the end of some excellent driving runs to score in the right corner. Next, towards the end of the half, Ed Rigby came close to scoring after Brown and Sharples manufactured a good move in the backs and only a dubious forward pass spoiled what would have been a fantastic team try. The half time whistle blew with the score at 31-10 to PGH. Clitheroe had essentially been put to the sword in the first 10 minutes but had certainly shown some resolve to limit the damage and indeed, get back into the game to some degree.

Gretton, first explaining that the game was nowhere near lost, asked more from his troops at the half time team talk and although they looked to respond positively in the opening exchanges of the second half it was PGH who scored first with some solid work from their pack, who, at scrum time, had looked very exposed throughout the game. Clitheroe hit back quickly with a Graves try. The sizeable prop reacted quickly to a penalty and tapped the ball around 30 yards out. After quick recycling and some quick hands, Graves popped up at the right time to finish off a move he started by taking the try scoring pass and busting his way over the line to cap a fine, man of the match winning performance.

Clitheroe, as a result of this defeat slipped to second in the table but they hope to return to winning ways next week with a trip to Fleetwood. On the last visit players and spectators alike enjoyed a feast of rugby in sweltering temperatures. Odds are for similar rugby if not the weather!