Rugby Lions in the end ran out comfortable winners at Cleckheaton and in doing so leave the Yorkshire club 16 points from the safety zone and looking certain for relegation. With Rugby missing Matt Davies, Matt Lister and Paul Thompson through injury, Nick Sharpe partnered James Wadey at lock, with Sam Overton at hooker and Tommy Booth at number eight. Matt Goode made a welcome return at centre, and new signings Nick Maxwell and Stuart Riding were sat on the bench.

The day was bright and sunny but a very strong cross-field wind was to have an important effect on play. The first half will not linger long in the memory as numerous errors were committed by both sides in a very scrappy affair. Rugby dominated the first quarter but failed to put points on the board. James Hawken’s penalty attempt in the second minute was blown just wide of the uprights by the gale and shortly after, a superb tackle from Dom Wareing knocked the ball from the grasp of a Cleckheaton attacker a few metres short of the try line. Lions took the lead on the half hour mark with a penalty from Hawken after Cleckheaton were penalised for not rolling away.

Rugby’s pack were on top in the set piece with Alex Nash performing well in the line-outs and a series of drives which got to within a metre of Cleck’s line was halted when Rugby were penalised for not releasing the ball.

The second half did not start well for Rugby when they tried to run the ball out of their own 22 and knocked the ball on. With Tommy Turner using the wind well to keep the home side pinned in their own half, a long clearance kick from Cleckheaton was fielded on half way by Michael Rust. He linked well with Ade Hales who released James Hawken down the left to score Rugby’s first try after 48 minutes. After hitting the post with a previous penalty attempt, Hawks made no mistake with the conversion to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.

Cleckheaton then tried to run the ball from their 22, but this backfired when James Wadey intercepted and slipped the ball to Alex Nash. James Hawken again appeared down the left touch- line to receive the ball and dive over in the corner. The try scorer slotted the conversion superbly into the wind.

Tommy Turner then put in a lovely kick to the right hand touchline, which almost led to another try. The defending winger lost the ball a yard in from the line and Dom Wareing kicked ahead towards the try line. Much to the relief of the home side, the ball had just had too much on it and crossed the dead ball line before Dom could reach it.

A chip and chase from Matt Goode almost led to another try, but the ball was knocked out of his grasp as he tried to gather, with the try line begging. With the game safe, Lions bought on replacements Stuart Riding for James Wadey, and Wilf Barclay for Tommy Booth. Wilf was immediately in the action and the visiting supporters feared another yellow card after he appeared to trip an opponent. The referee however, decided a stern word would suffice. A strong run by Cleckheaton’s midfield put Rugby under pressure for the first time in the second half, but a forward pass denied them a try. Lions then bought on Chris Murphy for Michael Rust. Cleck to their credit still tried to run the ball, but when their winger dropped it on half way, Murphy scooped it up, and with his fresh legs nobody was going to catch him. Hawken converted from in front of the posts to end the game.

Although the second half was better, this was a far from convincing performance by the Lions.

Rugby’s first visit to Cleckheaton was at the end of February 2005 when both sides were struggling to avoid the relegation pit and the hosts won the game 24-23 thus helping to secure their position in National 3 North, and hurrying the Lions down the slope to Midlands1. This time around it is only Cleckheaton that has a relegation problem as they are eleven points adrift in 13^th place. However, the Lions still covet a promotion place so need to win every game including this one.

With this scenario the battle for victory is likely to be every bit as competitive as at that previous encounter with Cleck once more having the home advantage. Of 21 games played Cleckheaton have won 5, lost 14 and drawn 2. Three of their wins (Orrell, Darlington MP and Macclesfield) were at home and two (Darlington and Leicester Lions) were on the road. Seven losses at home were against Morley, Preston, West Park, Fylde, Leicester Lions, Hull and Tynedale. Seven lost away games were at Macclesfield, Hull, Tynedale, Rugby (6-11), Blaydon, Preston and Darlington MP. Their game at Morley was drawn, as was their game at Orrell, providing the latter’s only match points of the season to date.