Caldy show good attitude in tight crunch with Darlington

Feb 20 2008 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

DARLINGTON were made to fight hard for their 27-21 National Three North League victory at Caldy.

The Wirral club made an excellent start to lead 15-0 after the first quarter, but forward power proved decisive for Park in the end with Caldy missing key second-row players.

Gareth Roberts landed two kicks for Caldy to make it 21-17 but then Darlington produced their best rugby of the game and were rewarded with a crucial touch down.

The conversion was successful and another penalty followed but Caldy produced a late flourish when the visitors did well to hold up a series of drives before bundling home Ross into touch just short of the line.

Roberts landed an early penalty and excellent tries followed from Wylie and Matt Pennington with one converted, but then the visitors showed their worth with two tries from rolling mauls.

With key players absent, Birkenhead suffered their third successive North One reverse – this time at 32-7 defeat at Westoe..

At 24-0 at the half way stage, it was virtually all over for Park but Colin Campbell gained a try after forward pressure with Dave Hall converting.

Ken Wood went in after just four minutes for Westoe from a forward drive with Sam Rasch converting.

Two more forward orientated tries followed from Gareth Nesbitt and Wood again before scrum-half Martin Lithgoe stormed over from a tap penalty.

There was another Rasch conversion, but Westoe in the second period were restricted to a penalty via Rasch and a breakaway try through Paul Alexander.

New Brighton completed a North Two West League double over their Lancashire rivals with a bruising 25-10 win over Leigh at Hartsfield.

The try count was only 3-2 in Brighton’s favour, but the kicking of Stephen Dean proved important on the day.

It was only 8-0 at the half-way stage, but the home side never really looked like losing their advantage.

Tuipulotu touched down following a forward drive and Dean landed a penalty. Dean’s kick through in the third quarter paved the way for an Ollie Perryman try for the home side and Topou got the third after three phases of play.

Dean landed both goals and another penalty. Paul Wilcox tried his best for Leigh with two tries but they were not enough on the day.

It was one way traffic for Wirral, with the Aspull defence unable to cope and submitted to a huge 102-5 defeat at Clatterbridge. Dan Harvey and Alistair Baker secured four tries each for Wirral, while Tim Hodson went in three times and Matt Bennett and Ian White twice each.

There was also a penalty try and Craig Harvey kicked 22 points to add to the Aspull misery. The losers got one try.

Hoylake never really got going during their South Lancashire/Cheshire One clash and were well beaten by Bowdon 40-10. Steve Young and Jason Powell touched down, but Bowdon ran in half a dozen tries and were superior on the day.