Clitheroe Ease Past Rochdale

Heavy overnight rain had left the Littlemoor pitch in a sorry state. And although it was not particularly conducive to top of the ground running rugby, the Littlemoor squad made light work of Rochdale on Saturday.

With still a number of key players out of action the maroons were still able to turn out a decent enough squad. In came reliable Austin Wensley on the right wing and Jamie Farrell joined Adam Penney on the bench.

In recent games Clitheroe had gained an unwelcome habit of giving the opposition a head start before playing catch up.

No such generosity this time though. As Clitheroe fielded the kick off it was run out of defence through several pairs of hands before full back Chris Stewart burst into the line to scorch down the pitch for the opening try. Marco Vaghetti was on hand with the extras and Clitheroe were 7-0 up within 2 minutes.

Clitheroe were over again when James Haynes made a strong burst shaking off several would be tacklers in the process. It's good to see the Welshman coming back to form at just the right time of the season after an appendix operation.
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Then it was Richard Slinger's turn to weave some shapes in the midfield, several outrageous dummies and sidesteps, reminiscent of his father in his prime about 30 years ago. A try under the sticks and Clitheroe were cruising.

The forwards got in on the act next. A well executed line out catch and drive rumbled inexorably forwards with even some the three-quarters lending their weight. From the bottom of the heap emereged Lewis Hardman to claim the score.

Half time and 29-0 up; the talk was to maintain concentration and standards.

A reshuffle in the back line with Joe Weld-Blundell retiring with a pulled hamstring seemed to rock Clitheroe, & for a while and Rochdale had their own period of dominance leading to a try of their own.

This at least managed to refocus the team and with the scrum reasserting it's dominance. It opened the way for two more Clitheroe scores.

Another one for both Chris Stewart and Richard Slinger to end a patchy second half.

A satisfying win in very tricky conditions, but if they can string an 80 minute performance together plus get some of their key players back on the pitch, the future looks bright.

*** James Dickinson also scored