INJURY to Altrincham prop forward Darren Simons forced the abandonment of Kendal’s fixture at Kersal Drive.

Harry Luscombe’s penalty separated the sides when the incident occurred on 20 minutes after Kersal wing Simon Edwards and Kendal skipper James Gough traded converted tries.

Simons was attended to by Kendal chairman Dr Steve Green in his role as club doctor, although lack of a stretcher meant Simons could not be removed from the field of play.

With play suspended until the arrival of the Air Ambulance, the subsequent delays resulted in the referee calling a halt to proceedings.

A scan revealed there was no serious damage to the player’s back, with Simons released from hospital on Saturday evening.

In the match itself, a number of handling errors denied Kendal profiting from some promising early attacking situations, with Kersal taking full advantage on eight minutes.

Good recycling of the ball in midfield created space on the right flank for Edwards to cross the line, with fly-half Luscombe successfully kicking his 12th conversion of the season.

With Duncan Green and Matty Houghton injured, Billy Coxon moved to hooker to form a strong front row alongside Richard Harryman and Glen Chesher, as Kendal controlled the scrums.

And the Black and Ambers were soon back in the game, Gough taking a quick penalty to power over with Andrew Boardley’s conversion levelling matters.

Kersal regained the lead through a Luscombe penalty – his 74th point of a productive campaign – before the game was halted by the injury incident with Kendal on the attack.

Both sides left the field while medical attention was administered and by the time it was possible to move the player from the field of play the time was 3.25pm.

Despite both sets of players returning to warm-up, the referee decided no further play was possible with the training lights at the ground not strong enough to complete the match.

While this game requires re-scheduling later in the campaign, Kendal drop to sixth in League One North West as Altrincham Kersal remain second-bottom of the league standings.