Kendal fall to bottom of league with Otley defeat (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Kendal fall to bottom of league with Otley defeat

10:10am Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Sport

National League 2 North
Kendal 5
Otley 11
By Mark Hodgkiss
With only bonus points separating the three teams at the bottom of the table, Kendal hosted Otley in a must win game for both teams.

Chris Park returned at outside half for Kendal, but centre Dave Barton dropped out to be replaced by Steffan Thomas. Kendal started attacking the clubhouse end, and despite playing into a very strong wind, dominated the early exchanges.

After a string of penalties put them into the Otley 22, they tested a resolute Otley defence, which held firm until flanker Daniel Temm was yellow carded by referee Matt Daubney.

Kendal continued to attack the Otley line and finally Billy Coxon weaved his way over for an unconverted try and a 5-0 lead.

Despite playing into the wind, Kendal dominated possession. A kick and chase by wing Kris Bratton forced Otley to concede a lineout in their 22, but in difficult windy conditions, the put in was adjudged to have been not straight.

In injury time the visitors broke out of their own half and some weak tackling allowed a break into the 22 and hooker Tim Mobbs scored a try, but the conversion was missed. 5-5.

Otley came out the stronger in the second half, and in almost a mirror image of the opening of the first half, Kendal gave away penalties to allow Otley to attack their line, and when a penalty was conceded in front of the posts, despite the wind, Otley fullback Ben Collins kicked it and Otley led 8-5.

Otley took control and the loss of flanker Garry Holmes at half time and hooker Duncan Green early in the half, disrupted the pattern of play Kendal had shown in the first half.

When prop Billy Coxon was yellow carded after ten minutes, Collins put over a second penalty, helped by a drop in the strength of the wind and there was a six-point gap.

Despite being reduced to fourteen men, Kendal then had their best spell of play of the half as the forwards began to dominate.

A clever kick to the corner seemed to have set up an opening for a try but the final pass was knocked on and Otley cleared.

Otley grew in confidence and found gaps in the recently watertight Kendal defence, but could not find a further score while Kendal failed to find a way to batter through the Otley defence.

With ten minutes to go Glenn Chesher was yellow carded but while the Kendal defence held out they were penned deep in their own half as time ran out.

KENDAL XV: R Harryman, D Green, B Coxon, L Hayton, R Tomlinson, G Holmes, J Mallinson, J Ellis, S Davidson, C Park, I Voortman, S Thomas, L Mercer, K Bratten, A Boardley. Reps: G Chesher, C Rumney, T Voke, D Redhead, J Postlethwaite.