On a glorious Indian Summers day at Littlemoor, Clitheroe put Vale of Lune firmly to the sword scoring six tries in a gritty but error strewn performance.

But a win whilst not playing at your best is a good problem to have. There was also the added pressure of all Clitheroe teams being unbeaten on their own turf this season, this standard was well maintained by the U13's on Sunday morning.

Pull up the drawbridge on 'Fortress Littlemoor'.

Skipper Richard Few returned from injury to lead the side from the pivotal scrum half role. Joe Weld-Blundell was too useful to leave out of the side so he move to the right wing where his pace and tackling would prove invaluable.

Garth Spencer also slotted back into inside centre, and a strong bench was available with three experienced players; Marco Vaghetti, Matt Bleasedale and Will Dickenson – all returning to action.

Vale had brought a young fit looking squad who got stuck into some vigorous warm up routines with some sharp looking handling.

Even forewarned by this Clitheroe, found themselves under the cosh from early on. And when Vale opened their account with a penalty after five minutes Clitheroe knew they were in a game.

After absorbing a shed load of pressure Clitheroe proved adept at contriving to give hard won ball straight back to the opposition, be it poor decision making or sloppy passing. Only some tremendous last ditch tackling from the two Joes - full back Joe Smith and Weld-Blundell – both punching well above their weight setting a terrific example, kept the opposition at bay.

Once they made a brief foray out the danger zone they managed to settle and although slightly against the run of play, Captain Few was ever alert to snap up a loose ball and carve up the midfield and dot down under the posts to open the town teams account. David Kenyon popped over the extras, and Clitheroe had a lead they were never to surrender thereafter.

By the interval Few had nabbed another one and Clitheroe were far more comfortable 14-3 up.

As ever the visitors were geed up to restart the second period with a bang and when they nicked back a score of their own, it seemed to galvanise the maroon and gold machine into action.

A well placed penalty kick from Kenyon put them five metres from the line, and from the resultant line out Clitheroe showed England just how to do it. Nice catch, low drive, good body positions and up with ball was Will Dickenson. [see pics!]

Now the game began to open up Clitheroe upped the work rate. Emptying the bench brought fresh impetus to the team. And the main beneficiary was the Captain. Some strong scrumming from the pack and Few was giving his opposite number a nightmarish afternoon.

Capitalising on the uncertainty at the base of the Vale scrum he pounced for two more tries, showing a shap pair of heels to the clutching would be tacklers. All that pre-season training has paid dividends and gave the scrum half the man of the match award. A fine example to his team.

Clitheroe were far from finished at this point and the ball at last began to get down the line to the outside backs. Chris Stewart made several long breaks but the final support pass would just not go to hand.

However the young pretender Joe Weld-Blundell showed a touch of class to wrap up the scoring. Getting the ball 30 yards out he slowed, jinked and then accelerated round his man to have the crowd on their feet.

So scoring six tries whilst not at their best was a more than satisfactory return on the afternoon. Clitheroe are building a handy squad and with several leading lights poised to return from injury the contention for places is hotting up. A pleasing problem for the selectors.