It's a topsy turvy league this year

Clitheroe went to face Leigh away on Saturday and the game demonstrated just how closely matched the teams in this league are. Clitheroe started the day in 5th place and Leigh in second to bottom, by the time the day ended the town’s team had slipped a place and Leigh had climbed out of the relegation zone.
Clitheroe started lethargically and Leigh capitalised handsomely, with their Number 8 and Stand Off leading the charge with some slick moves, aggressive rucking and good foraging on the ground leading them to score 3 quick tries within the for 15 minutes leaving Clitheroe reeling on the back foot. It was some solid tackling from Jim Smith that begin to stem the Leigh flow – time and time again he slammed the opposition runners into the wet turf.
Leigh played a clever game and used the narrow pitch to very good advantage, with some crashing balls up the middle from some well worked set piece moves. A tipped ball off the back of a shortened lineout dropped neatly into the scrum half’s hands and he spun it out to the crashing loose forward who sliced through to score.
Everything good was coming off the Leigh 10, who went for nearly 50 minutes before getting tackled and felled – surely the key to getting this team back under pressure was to snaffle out the attack of the 10 and 8. Clitheroe eventually started to wake up and looked to the usual key players to make their mark – last week’s Man of the Match Mick Thornber showing up well in the lose and Jim Smith powering into tackle after tackle – with wiry Simon Cowgill doing his usual good work on the floor. In the back line Chris Waddington was having what is fast becoming his regular disruptive, hard running game. With the Maroon & Gold slowly warming to the task as they scrabbled on the floor with some interesting interpretation of the ruck laws from the man with the whistle, unfortunately it was Leigh who played the referee much more efficiently. While they were chasing the game from a 17 – nil deficit, Clitheroe naturally had to play a slightly loose, frantic type of game – which on a wider pitch might of paid more dividends. They had chances through the back line with a slicing run from Peel going out to Ben Rigby who had joined the attack from full back giving the ball to an over eager Redfearn on the wing who unfortunately had over run his man and the ball went to ground.
Every time Clitheroe seemed to making progress into Leigh 22, some niggling transgression was spotted by the referee and the progress was halted. A kick over the top fell into Leigh hands and as they tried to run it out of their 22 it was Cowgill who put in a text book tackle and McEntyre stole the ball before the Leigh man could sent it back in the ruck – from this possession the forwards drove forward and set up a good platform for the backs to run off, with Smith slipping it to Watson at 10 and make his classic pop pass to Peel who powered through to score under the posts and claw back seven points to make the score 17 – 7, with 5 minutes to play and surprisingly, suddenly Clitheroe thought the game could be won. Some sorties into the Leigh half failed to yield any further scores and Leigh held out for a deserved win. It was a performance that Clitheroe will want to move away from swiftly, but it was Jim Smith who was awarded the Clitheroe Man of the Match for putting in some try saving tackles throughout the first, torrid 20 minutes.
The Maroon & Gold will have to lift their game to travel back into rugby league territory next week to play Wigan away, whilst the 2nd XV entertain Colne & Nelson at Littlemoor.