Lymm 17-31 Kirkby Lonsdale

By Cammie Hodgkinson

KIRKBY Lonsdale recorded a fine victory on the road at Lymm as they came away from Cheshire with a 31-17 win.

Kirkby applied the early pressure and went ahead when skipper Dave Barton went over from a penalty inside the 22.

Stand off Mike Fearon’s conversion was good and Kirkby led 7-0 after eight minutes.

Lymm hit back with pressure near the Kirkby line and in defence prop Braden Schiller picked up a yellow and from the resulting penalty Lymm kicked but were unable to profit further during their man advantage.

Restored to 15 Kirkby continued to have the edge and Harry Ralston scored a fine individual try by the corner flag with Fearon again on target with the kick.

But Stu Storey was yellow carded and this time Lymm didn’t waste the man advantage, their forwards got a roll going at the Kirkby line and they were able to cross for their first try by the posts. The conversion was a formality closing the gap to 10-14.

After the interval, prop Dan Armistead went close but Kirkby kept the pressure on with a penalty to the corner and a catch and drive over which was deemed held up.

It was now Lymm’s backs to the wall with a Kirkby five-metre scrum and in defence the Lymm number six was yellow carded.

Kirkby pressured the line and blind side flanker Josh Sheridan scored a debut try when he galloped over a ruck to touch down, Fearon kicking the conversion to take Kirkby out to 21-10.

A Fearon penalty as the game went into the last quarter extended this to 24-10 but in a game Lymm needed to win they weren’t lying down.

Their cause wasn’t helped when their loose head prop was yellow carded with 15 minutes to play but to their credit their 14 men did manage a converted try to close the gap to 24-17 and they were back in one score range with 10 minutes to play.

Kirkby’s response was to bring Scott Armstrong off the bench. Fearon put in a penetrating run up centre field which took play to the home 22 where the ball was recycled and driven on and although Lymm defended desperately they couldn’t stop Armstrong scooping up a loose ball to score the bonus point fourth try. The immaculate Fearon hadn’t missed a kick all day and he made no mistake with this one to wrap up the game.