Its just down the road and a bit past Chester. A blimin long way for a nice sunny day but the lovely countryside and idyllic facilities of the C&N club make it worth while. Along with the score line being in our favour as well of course.

Given the distance and my conspiratorial theories I’m sure that C&N have sleepers in the current Government who started the fuel panic to assist their cause and try to bleed the forecourts dry so we couldn’t make it.
Alas the ingenuity of the Rossendale masse who utilised chippy oil ( Flaxmoss is now now shut for the week and cant understand why, but theres no Friday chippy T from there), maroon flavoured heavy oil and some petrol mower fuel from the easily opened corporation cabins in that secret location (wink wink), ensured we all made it safely and without having to pay any extra VAT. “Are you reading George Osborne, Are you reading George Osborne!”
Keep your hands off my pasty!

The game. Didn’t go quite right from the outset and the C&N lads put up a spirited fight. We didn’t get a look at their line from the outset, they made some big plays and gained in confidence before taking the lead after about 14 minutes. We made mistakes and didn’t get on to our game. I was in a morose panic .I did however forget that traditionally we are slow starters and the panic that set in was a little premature.

The M6 legs were waved bye bye and the lads found their feet. Some good constructive work down the flank by the Dale forwards resulted in Jake taking the ball over from the back of the ruck after some wonderful pressure from the forwards.

Dale didn’t relent and continued to adopt the brand of rugby that they have played of late with sweeping moves right across the park and through the hands of numerous players as we backed up players and offloaded with confidence.

Cory was unlucky not to go over in the corner when he chased a lovely flighted kick over by Jake and other moves fell down with some simple wet weather errors despite it being bone dry.

Defence played a big part still and Cloughy cloughyed several for having the audacity to try and break through , saving the day several times on the flanks.

On 29 minutes further great work took us down deep into their territory before Mason picked up and strongly barged his way over. Jake kicked the goal.

No further scores that half but some great dominance by Dale sadly didn’t see them score more and put the game out of sight.

A change a half time put the returning Harry Clark into the fray and the initial impact was enormous, a bit like the way he has become since he last played ! bum bum.

One of his old trade mark runs taking all with him was followed by a great try from Billy Holden on 37 minutes.
Harry added strength to the pack in the scrum and who can forget that massive impact he had into the maul when his “hit up” took us some 25 yards down field , Cory joining in the fold to add weight from full back as it faltered and take us further. An infringement in a following phase ruined the day and instead of increasing the lead and making the game out of sight the penalty took us on the back foot.

Harry came off soon after, an effect the 30 a day woodbines was having.

It stayed a bit of a nip and tuck affair. The bone dry pitches caused havoc to our precious tender feet and many lads had run themselves dry. Thankfully the interchanges we had did their jobs and played a big part in that win allowing players to have breathers and inject new legs into the fold.

Although I didn’t think C&N would turn us over at the last, their courageous last stand for the season complimented what was a thrilling cup tie and they should feel a good sense of pride from that as we should for sticking to our task and wining through in the end.

Man of the match performances : Backs , well Jake mann had a big part to play today with a lot of good moves coming from him, good kicking and some excellent rucking as well as his try. His partner at half back Billy Holden should also take a big bow as he was also immense.
Forward wise, our old faithfuls Mason, Joe, Jay and Woody. But Tom Allen had an outstanding game so well done to him for today.

Other notables : Adil, brilliant attacking running: Cory : a very strong game at Full back and a wonderful take on the full charge to bring the ball right back into attack.

Nice one chaps and once again great support.

Its training as normal this week. Hopefully with the semi final looming we can see a further healthy number like last week making it down.

The semi is to be played on Sunday 15th April. Its at home. You may be having your leg off or a lobotomy that weekend but you will all be required by your team to attend no matter what. So, sorry, if you have anything else planned shelve it.