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WINNINGTON PARK 7 – ANSELMIANS 19
Saints made the short trip to Northwich, home of Winnington Park, this week. Fair conditions and a stiff breeze, a decent dry pitch meant everything was set for a very competitive match.
Saints chose to rest a couple of players with injury niggles with the Cheshire cup final getting near. Buoyed by a large crowd, Winnington pressed hard in a bad-tempered game.
Twenty minutes in, the referee sent four players to the bin for minor handbagging. With more space now available, it was Saints winger James Whitehouse who skimmed a couple of players to touch down. Unfortunately, the try was not converted.
Just before half time, another break by Tommy Banks, the flying winger, broke another tackle to touch down under the posts; converted by Morley.
During the second half, Winnington piled on the pressure and scored a converted try of their own. The second half continued with some bad-tempered exchanges, resulting in another two players – one from each side – having a 10-minute rest.
Saints, who were on the wrong side of the penalty count throughout the whole of the game, started to click and ever-youthful James Otutaha crashed over to leave Morley an easy conversion and a 7-19 win.
Man of the Match performance from Saints captain, Will Grabe. Saints are now one game from the title, with the fixture with Leigh on 30 April.
Winnington Park15 Chris Twigg14 Ashley Harding13 James Johnson12 Lee Allmark11 William Morrillo10 Cameron Flanagan9 Mathew Cross1 Ross Morrin2 Andrew Evans3 Shaun Underdown4 Ben Cann5 Kieran Taylor6 Matthew Treacy7 David Cross8 Alex GlendinningWinnington Park SubsS1 Michael EavesS2 Josh AllenS3 Ryan Snow
Anselmians15 Andrew Cummings14 James Whitehouse13 Thomas Banks12 Ransford Otutaha11 Adam Bramhall10 David Morley9 Liam Sadler1 Jonathan Bonner2 Daniel Salisbury3 Stephen Brooks4 Niall Cavanagh5 Jack Richards6 William Grabe7 Thomas Gilbert8 Ewan NolanAnselmians SubsS1 Brian AtwineS2 Kellum FridayS3 Benjamin Sadler
Anselmians 1st XV’s next game is home to Leigh on Saturday 30 April.
Image credit: Derek Salisbury Snr
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