Hutton Show Clitheroe Clean Pair of Heels

After the previous weeks bafflingly lacklustre showing the Clitheroe players were keen to show not just the Littlemoor faithful that they have a decent performance in them; but more importantly they needed to show themselves that the passion and fire still burn bright.
So they welcomed Hutton RFC who had been going along quite nicely in this division having been relegated last term. A bit of an unknown quantity.

Right from the kick off it was clear Hutton are a very well drilled outfit with some strong ball carrying forwards and a powerful and slick back line.
When the visitors scored after a short period of early pressure, the watching support were fearful of what was to come.
However Clitheroe were not overawed and rolled their sleeves up for what turned out to be a dog fight for the first 40 minutes..
although defending for much of the half the line was not breached again. The only dark cloud was a livewire flank forward Struan Robertson departing with an arm injury.

Half time and it was 0-7 to the visitors and Clitheroe were still confident of turning it round in the second period. On came Jacob Shorrock and Robertson manfully re-joined the fray.

Unfortunately Hutton had other ideas; the proceeded to hit the most vivid purple of purple patches and seemed to run riot for 25 minutes, wrapping the game up right there and then. Some scintillating running from the Hutton backs carved up the home defence and Clitheroe were left reeling.

It could have got out of hand but creditably Clitheroe steadfastly refused to panic and stemmed the flow. A lesson learnt for the home side.
Happily for the touchline support Clitheroe had the last say in the game when a lovely weighted cross kick was pounced upon by Miles Sharples who scooted over for a score.
Fair do's to Hutton a good team and the better on the day, but high fives to the maroon and gold who battled hard and showed that the spirit is still there and unwelcome as the scoreline was there was plenty of positives to come out of the game.
Special mention to Ross Chamberlain who's education at prop continues, also Andrew Ralph Rigby[pictured] proved the old adage that form is temporary but class is permanent - well done Riggers.

Unfortunately Struan Robertson was later diagnosed with a fractured arm, in spite of completing the game. So he'll be out for a few weeks. But on a brighter note there is the imminent return over the next couple of weeks of Luke Hayton and Joe Smith, both of whom have not played since the warm up game at Skipton in late August.