Cup Win On The Road

On the back of last week's resounding victory at Littlemoor, Clitheroe travelled to the home of West Park RFC in St. Helens for a repeat showing. Or so they perhaps thought.

In this 1st round tie of the Raging Bull Bowl it was all up for grabs and anything could happen.

This time the home side were 'up for it' and a far stronger proposition than before. Only five minutes had gone when Clitheroe had found themselves on the back foot. A catalogue of fumbles and mistakes saw an energetic Park team score wide out on the left wing. Conversion over and it was a sudden reality check for the town team.

But it took another twenty minutes of fairly ineffectual huffing and puffing for Clitheroe to get their game together. Some of this could be blamed on the rejigged side that was on show, but the rest was through lack of accuracy and perhaps being guilty of taking the opposition too lightly.

A lesson learnt in that respect.

As a club Clitheroe seemed chronically short off backs, which effected both teams badly. Back of the injury list came James Dickinson at fly half. Back row man Richard Slinger was stationed at inside centre with Garth Spencer moving to full-back and Graham Hanson coming in on the wing.

Up front there was a recall for Ben Graves at tight head prop and Nat Dickenson joined brother Will in the back row.

It took a nerve settling three pointer penalty from Dickinson to ignite the maroon and gold machine.

An excellent line out catch and drive secured the first try. No 8 James 'Taffy' Haynes the recipient of the plaudits under the pile of bodies. [About as good as it got for Wales that day.] Dickinson on hand with the extras.

Almost immediately Clitheroe scored again. Slinger this time cutting back and dancing his way through a bemused defence.

Now Clitheroe were beginning to up the ante. The forwards cohesion was paying dividends in both open and tight play.

Just before the interval another text book driving maul, this time from 20 metres out, rumbled inexorably like a giant tortoise towards the line. Loose head prop guiding and steering at the back, Richard Edmondson, was on target to dot the ball down for the try.

The benefits of training together perhaps?

There was just time for Park to slot a penalty before the change round, with Clitheroe ahead 10-20.

The second half should have been when Clitheroe could cut loose. But faced with an flinty defence they struggled to maintain fluency.

And it was only on the hour mark that Clitheroe crossed again. This time a series of wide raids stretched the defence and outside centre Chris Stewart took advantage to further the lead.

As time went on Clitheroe appeared the stronger and fitter side. Now with the improving Jamie Farrell
on in the pack Clitheroe laid siege to the West Park line.

Some close quarter surges from the pack opened the door for Skipper Richard Few to scamper over for his try.

Then Chris Stewart was over again, outflanking a tiring defence to bag his brace.

And as a final coup de grace it was, would be prop, Will Dickenson who showed great support play and an impressive turn of speed for one so large, by finishing off a flowing move in the left corner.

So it came good in the end for Clitheroe, no shortage of graft from the players; exemplified by lock forward Lewis Hardman [pictured]; while not renowned for his loquaciousness, certainly let his rugby do the talking in this game. Also a good showing from Ben Graves, once he works his way back to match fitness he'll be a benefit to the front row resources.

Clitheroe now await the draw for the second round of the competition, which takes place on 14th November.