RUGBY: Chris Park leads way as Kendal battle to win over Wilmslow

CHRIS Park led the way as Kendal maintained their assault on the summit of North One West with a battling victory over Wilmslow at Mint Bridge.

The Black and Ambers were made to work hard for the points and only took the lead with ten minutes left on the clock through an exquisite Glen Weightman penalty from inside his own-half.

Park picked up 20 of Kendal's points and was prolific with the boot as he put two penalties and two conversions over the sticks, as well as a brace of tries.

The result moved them above Kirkby Lonsdale into second place - just three points behind leaders Birkenhead Park.

There was an early blow for Kendal as powerful centre Bob Mataia was forced off and replaced by Alistair Thompson.

Wilmslow began strongly and Kendal were fortunate to survive on two occasions as errors from the away side wasted clear try scoring opportunities.

A ball was moved to the left, with a player having a clear run to the line, if he had been able to collect the pass, but it was dropped. Then after a powerful break by Wilmslow's Alex Taylor, they had a three man overlap, but the referee adjudged the final pass to be forward.

Wilmslow finally opened the scoring after twenty five minutes. There was a break from a scrum on the right, and a pass was put to the wing for a score. The Wilmslow kicker looked far from confident, and his conversion attempt failed.

Against the early run of play, Kendal came back into the game and had an attack down the right. On almost their first visit to the Wilmslow twenty two, the forwards seemed to have the ball under control on the Wilmslow line, but instead of keeping the ball tight, players broke away and a knock-on gave Wilmslow a chance to clear.

Wilmslow doubled their lead with five minutes of the half to play through prop Adam Taher. Again the kick at goal was missed, but Wilmslow seemed to be in control.

Kendal finally got on the scoreboard in first-half stoppage time.

The ball was moved quickly into the centre from a lineout, where Dini Noyo popped up to break through. Instead of going for the line himself, having committed the tacklers, he passed out to the unmarked Park, who juggled with the ball, but kept it under control to score in the corner.

He made no mistake with the penalty - slotting the kick over as Kendal went in at half-time down 10-7.

Kendal started the second half well. From the Wilmslow kick-off, James Gough appeared to be about to kick, but instead broke through the defence. Having taken the ball into the Wilmslow half, the ball was fed to Mark Carruthers, who did well to gather a difficult pass. When he was stopped, Gough took the ball on again, but the move broke down when the referee penalised a Kendal player for failing to release the ball after a tackle.

After six minutes of the half, Wilmslow extended their lead. Kendal had a lineout on the right but it was stolen by Wilmslow who advanced up the field before centre Richard Hughes broke through to score. Again the conversion was unsuccessful.

On 55 minutes, Kendal narrowed the gap. Weightman returned a Wilmslow kick out of defence, and followed his own kick to tackle the Wilmslow player who took the catch, who was forced to concede a penalty, which Park put over.

Three minutes later the gap was down to two points. Kendal had a lineout on the right, and the Wilmslow defence came up too quickly - giving Park an easy kick in front of the posts.

Kendal tails were now up and they forced a penalty in their own half when a Wilmslow forward held the ball on the ground, to avoid the ball being turned over.

Gough tried to take the ball for a quick penalty, but again a Wilmslow player failed to release the ball, and the referee moved the penalty ten metres forward.

Despite the still being in his own half, and well to the left of the posts, Weightman indicated he would go for goal, and managed to put over an excellent kick, to give his team the lead for the first time.

With five minutes to play Kendal extended the lead. From a scrum near halfway, the ball was moved quickly to the right wing where Park burst through and on the line managed to break a tackle to score.

He put over the difficult conversion to give Kendal the all important cushion of a two score lead.

After the re-start Wilmslow again kept the ball through numerous phases, but could not make any impact on the Kendal defence, and were often being forced back, as the clock ran down.

Nathan Wooff, Chris Park, Bob Mataia, Mark Carruthers, Dini Noyo, Glen Weightman, James Gough, Duncan Green, Robbie Collinson, Jake Broomfield, Liam Hayton, Ben Leacock, Garry Holmes, Dan Greenwood, James Thompson. Subs: Alistair Thompson, Richard Harryman, Rob Weightman