Clitheroe Climb Heartbreak Ridge at Littlemoor

The first home fixture of the new year was played out at Littlemoor last Saturday. And marching over from the wrong side of Pendle were local rivals Colne & Nelson.

After a proverbial game of two halves in the reverse fixture earlier in the season when the Maroons finished very strongly, hopes were high for the team to prevail on their own paddock.

The week had been very wet and their was a bit of doubt on Saturday morning as to weather the game would go ahead. But a pitch inspection from Head Groundsman Phil Isherwood and his apprentice Bob Wilkinson gave the green light for the game to go ahead.

Game on!

A couple of enforced but unwelcome eleventh hour changes forced a reshuffle of resources. Up stepped Jake Procter for his first start in the 1st XV and promising Gaz Pickup came onto the bench with Nat Dickenson. Stuart Railton refreshed and raring to go was reinstalled at outside centre. At scrum half, incumbent Richard Few had to withdraw after tangling with a net during the week. No slouch in the replacements though - fresh from one of his many holidays was livewire Dan 'Smudge' Smith.

With a howling gale at their backs in the first half, it was clear that the changes had not affected the team's confidence and the were well and truly 'up for it'.

After camping in enemy territory for a period of time Colne gave away two penalties in quick succession and Nathan Peel was on target for the money shot both times.

Colne came back strongly and after a skirmish on the Clitheroe line they scored from close range.

So into the interval with a slender one point lead.

By now Clitheroe had brought on big Ben Graves to add his not inconsiderable ballast to the scrum soon to be followed by Gaz Pickup on to the right wing.

The fortune of both teams swayed to and fro during the half, with neither side just managing to gain control of game.

Then as the clock wound down and the tension cranked up, Colne stepped up half a gear and laid siege to the the Clitheroe line. A kick chase to the corner seemed to give them the winning try. But no - the referee adjudged Clitheroe full back Greg Birch to have just dabbed the ball down first.

Colne still pressed with a number of scrums in the Clitheroe 22. With everyone consulting their watches and the clock saying 80 minutes gone: disaster. The shrill blast of the whistle could mean only one thing ; penalty to Colne. Over it went of course and with it Clitheroe's last chance.

Hard to take but turn it into a positive. Fair play to Colne who played the full 80 without giving up.

Great commitment and attitude from the Clitheroe squad; tears of frustration and disappointment - yes. But bottle it and save it for the next game. That the great thing, there's always next week to put it right.