Kirkby keep third (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kirkby keep third

9:39am Friday 22nd February 2008 in Sport By Dennis Aris

BOTH sides seemed evenly matched for size on a cold, sunny day and a good pitch apart from a few soft patches.

Didsbury......................6 Kirkby Lonsdale........15...

Kirkby had the first chance of a score in this Cumbria/ North Lancs League match with a penalty but Pickthall's kick was just wide.

Play remained even until a clearing kick was fielded by Kirkby's right wing Ollie Atkinson, whose elusive run brought the ball into the middle of the pitch.

Mallaband took a good feed, beat his man then threw a long pass to full-back Walker, coming up at speed to go over in the corner for a well-taken try.

From wide out, Pickthall's conversion went to the left of the posts.

Another long-range penalty for Kirkby was just wide then a good passing move seemed to set up almost a re-run of Kirkby's first try, but this time Walker was brought down inches from the line.

The half ended with Didsbury in an attacking position, but a knock-on with the line beckoning enabled Kirkby to end the half with a single-score lead.

The Didsbury scrum began to exert pressure on Kirkby in the second half and set up several good attacks and Davis converted a penalty to narrow the score.

Kirkby responded by keeping play in the opposing 22 and got their reward when side- stepping prop Ryan Holmes went through the defence like a bullet to score behind the posts, Hadwin converting.

Didsbury fought back and Kirkby offended, Davis making no mistake to cut the gap to 12-6.

Another good move by Didsbury put Davis in the clear, but he knocked on.

Play swung to the other end and Mallaband had a good run.

Didsbury blocked this opportunity but soon afterwards Kirkby were awarded a penalty and Mallaband extended their lead to 15-6.

With five minutes to go both sides were desperately trying to get another score, but a hard- fought battle ended with Kirkby the winners to retain their third position in the league.