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.
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | +/- | TB | LB | Pts | Adj |
| 1 | Anselmians | 23 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 1042 | 210 | 832 | 18 | 1 | 109 | |
| 2 | Rochdale | 23 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 715 | 274 | 441 | 15 | 0 | 106 | |
| 3 | Keswick | 24 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 468 | 441 | 27 | 7 | 3 | 80 | |
| 4 | Winnington Park | 22 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 654 | 539 | 115 | 13 | 1 | 68 | |
| 5 | Warrington | 23 | 13 | 1 | 9 | 685 | 412 | 273 | 7 | 3 | 64 | |
| 6 | Tarleton | 23 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 466 | 518 | -52 | 6 | 4 | 52 | |
| 7 | Leigh | 22 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 434 | 409 | 25 | 8 | 2 | 50 | -5 |
| 8 | Cockermouth | 23 | 9 | 0 | 14 | 307 | 550 | -243 | 6 | 3 | 47 | |
| 9 | Southport | 24 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 370 | 632 | -262 | 2 | 5 | 39 | |
| 10 | Bolton | 24 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 461 | 691 | -230 | 5 | 2 | 38 | -5 |
| 11 | De La Salle (Salford) | 23 | 6 | 2 | 15 | 245 | 399 | -154 | 1 | 5 | 25 | -10 |
| 12 | St Benedicts | 24 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 293 | 737 | -444 | 4 | 4 | 25 | -5 |
| 13 | Orrell | 24 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 384 | 712 | -328 | 5 | 6 | 13 | -10 |
Winnington Park
15 Chris Twigg
14 Ashley Harding
13 James Johnson
12 Lee Allmark
11 William Morrillo
10 Cameron Flanagan
9 Mathew Cross
1 Ross Morrin
2 Andrew Evans
3 Shaun Underdown
4 Ben Cann
5 Kieran Taylor
6 Matthew Treacy
7 David Cross
8 Alex Glendinning
Winnington Park Subs
S1 Michael Eaves
S2 Josh Allen
S3 Ryan Snow
Anselmians
15 Andrew Cummings
14 James Whitehouse
13 Thomas Banks
12 Ransford Otutaha
11 Adam Bramhall
10 David Morley
9 Liam Sadler
1 Jonathan Bonner
2 Daniel Salisbury
3 Stephen Brooks
4 Niall Cavanagh
5 Jack Richards
6 William Grabe
7 Thomas Gilbert
8 Ewan Nolan
Anselmians Subs
S1 Brian Atwine
S2 Kellum Friday
S3 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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