Clitheroe win with ease to finish 5th

Clitheroe 1st XV played their last two games of the league season last week and took the full 8 points on offer to finish a very respectable 5th in the league. With only 7 points covering the 2nd to 5th positions behind worthy winners Rossendale, the team perhaps deserved to finish higher and could easily of done so with a few less injuries to key players. A staggering 48 players have donned the Maroon & Gold shirts of the town’s team this season, which indicates how the club has pulled together and fielded a team each week who have played with pride and passion every week.

Vale of Lune 4th team pitched up at Littlemoor Stadium on a sweltering day with the temperature rising into the 20’s and the sun beating down, and whilst this meant the backs could top up their tans, it proved hard work for the forwards.

Given the league finishing positions the match ran to form with Hal Parkinson opening the scoring after a great spell of play where the ball was recycled over and over again. With the puppet master Watson pulling the strings at stand-off with his usual aplomb the mighty Maroon & Gold surged into a big lead with scores from Lafranceschina and Peel, and just for good measure Lafranceschina added another before half time and Vale looked dazzled in spring sunshine.

After half time Peel added another and Simon Cowgill took another with a well worked back row move which saw the ball move through 5 sets of hands and Cowgill was as ever in support to touch down having been involved in the move earlier on. Vale had their moments with a penalty and a converted try, but it was all one way traffic in reality. The match was capped with a great piece of individual play from Lafranceschina who caught a kick from deep, jinked his way past several defenders, chipped over the top and gathered his kick to touch down in a move that took him from one end of the pitch to the other. Converting his own try to take the score to 45 – 10, and his own personal points tally to 25 points in the match – he was fully deserving of the home team Emporium Man of the Match award.

When the final whistle went, both teams were pleased to get out of the sun and cool off, after 6 games in 3 weeks to catch up abandoned league matches – all of which have taken place on hard pitches and in warm spring weather – this was a great way to end the season and with a good squad for next year the hopes are high for competing for higher league positioning. Captain Oliver McEntyre reiterated after the game that the season had gone exceptionally well and thanked his players for their dedication and fire in the heat of battle, adding that it had been a complete pleasure to captain the team throughout the season.

The last fixture of the season is the annual President’s Day match on the 8th May – with all the usual rivalries coming to the fore in this historic curtain call to the season it will be standing room only at Littlemoor, so get down early for a 3pm kick off.