Kirky's travelling band of waifs and strays made the shortish trip to Bolton RFC on Saturday. a motley selection of gangly youths, overweight insurance clerks and many who were escaping from an afternoon shopping with 'er indoors pulled on the maroon and gold jersey for their weekly skin cleansing mud pack bath.
Maybe local knowledge prevailed as the kick off was a few minutes early; time to get in before the other teams and nick all the hot water?
Graced with the basement level pitch which looked at first glance a wee bit stodgy but fears were allayed as it held up quite well in the circumstances. Props to the Bolton groundstaff!
KK had spread the net wide as usual and dragged in from near retirement/obscurity look-a-likes Simon Gretton & Martin Teflon O'Connor in the back line. In Phil Forrest's absence, Richard 'Nobs' Thornber found himself in the utility shirt, flitting between centre and back row with equal effectiveness. Austin Wensley was on one wing, with father critically watching on, and Spider Nadin was on the other. Bleasy reclaimed the 10 shirt with Mitch Jones taking on the scrum half duties this week.
Up front some old, and very old faces were parading their talents in the flattering skin tight shirts. The likes of John Pund Procter and Adam Penney lent an air of experience to the front row, along with Owen Panton, regaining match fitness, making only his second start this season. Fresh from the Costa Brava Adam Wood accompanied the Aussie vet Dan Jones - kindly taking time out from his usual schedule of separating dogs from their wedding tackle - in the second row. Captain's prerogative gave him the No 8 shirt and the flanking duo of Nick Good and Matt Mitchell made up a happy threesome.
Clitheroe got off to their customary cautious slow start and gave the home team a 5 point starter. This was soon cancelled out when a good build up gave space for Bleasy to put Spider Nadin away down the right touchline. He finished with aplomb but was unable to convert his own try. 5 points apiece.
Now Clitheroe were getting up a head of steam and began to put the Bolton defence under stress. A kick through saw the home full back kick the ball behind for a five metre scrum. Clitheroe initially made a bit of a hash of it by loosing the ball against the head, but to the home teams surprise, consternation and annoyance, it squirted out the side; and quick as a flash Nick Good scooped it up and plunged over triumphantly for his first try since 2008.
You don't want to rush these things.
Bleasy took a turn at missing a conversion and was successful.
No scores for the rest of the half but plenty of movement off the interchange bench; a bit of a revolving door of personnel from both teams. But everyone gets to play.
Into the second half and by now the likes of Jamie Taylor and Ben Wheale had come on [ two individuals who seem to share the same hairdresser] and Richard Murray made an all too brief cameo.[well in Muzza] Also on were the young thrusters, of Anvil Boy Oscar Duck and the Disco King Jack Stanley. In fact it was these two who managed to secure the game for Clitheroe along with some direct robust charges from Wheale.
The young boys had the fresh legs on the opposition, and most of their own team, and when the ball went to ground - which was quite often -the Duck forged a path through the defence and sprinted away unmolested on two occasions to put the game safe. Stanley shanked one and converted the other to wrap up the scoring.
All in all a fairly even game and well played to both teams who battled hard in slippery conditions. A Bolton player was carried off late in the second half and we hope he is not too badly crocked.
A good result for Clitheroe 2nds that puts them top of Div 4N...for now. However all their closest rivals have 2 or 3 games in hand and we don't play for a few weeks. So we watch and wait.

**As Hawcoat Park have dropped out of the league we are putting feelers out for an alternative bus trip; Kirby Lonsdale/Upper Eden or similar.
Give KK the thumbs up if you're up for it.