Bolton Mets 10-26 Bury Broncos

Pleased with another win against local rivals though we made hard work of it again. Bolton are a forwards-dominated team with a big pack and we got sucked into a forwards battle for too long. Their hooker was a great runner and couple of strong forwards troubled us, but for the most I felt we took everything they could throw and handled it fairly well.

Bolton scored first, we went ahead 10-4 before sloppy defence allowed them to draw level just after half time. Once we finally started to move the ball wide we began to dominate and following a nice chip & gather to take us ahead, some great work from our forwards put me away out wide to snatch another try (top try scorer at the moment somehow!), and the win was sealed on 80 with a devastating run out wide by a debutant winger.

4 more lads on debut today, the squad is shaping up well. Bolton are always a tough team and today was no exception, enjoyed the game and chuffed to be 2nd in the table even though there's a long, long way to go in the season.

Didn't attend Crosfields match as was back at the club entertaining Warrington Wizards 'A' 's first outing

Defences on top I see at 50-42. Coaches please with the win, unbeaten so far and looking forward to going to Chester next week.. bit of an unknown quantity for us

Might as well start it off

Well we fielded 2 sides but both lost...had a few let us down for the Seconds, think they lost about 36-14, and then the Firsts took the field...

Bury 6-14 Culcheth

Completely refereed out of this game. Culcheth came to play hard and dirty - fair enough, some teams do that - but the ref turned up with a proper grudge after getting some grief last year. Took no end of high shots, elbows & knees and were offered no protection at all, yet the slightest infringement by us was a penalty. We ended up having 2 sin-binned and 3 sent off. First was a stupid brain-fart as a one lad tripped someone, the others were following a dirty late elbow which caused a couple of normally very controlled players to explode - frankly they'd had enough. Not happy with discipline but if the ref won't protect players you can't really blame them for eventually losing it.

Culcheth squeezed in a couple of tries while we were down on numbers and it was hard to get back into it from then, but we got a late try. On a level playing field I'm confident we would have won, we made better yards and our defence was on top but some poor decisions and that absolute muppet with the whistle killed the game. Oh, and we had 3 legitimate tries chalked off - 2 of them clearly grounded. Fuming.

The game was also held up for 30 minutes with a neck/spinal injury that required 2 ambulances (the first didn't have a spinal board!) - hope the lad's ok.

We went down 30-24 at home to Crosfields. Pretty even game and think we should have held on. We were 20-16 up before Crosfields levelled and then they scored twice in the last seven minutes before we got a consolation at the death.

They are a big and physical outfit but a good set of lads and it was a decent game. Crosfields had a lad sinbinned for a professional foul and we didn't take advantage - think that was crucial point in the game.

Scoring points isn't a problem for us but we need to tighten up defensively and get a bit smarter. Confident the wins will come if we can do that.

Anyone know the Hindley A vs Portico Vine result from yesterday? Not on the NWML webesite.

Its been very quiet on here for the last few weeks.
How do ppl think the league is turning out.
Any shocks at what teams are doing well or not so well.
Another hard set of games this weekens hopefully no more 24-0

Enjoying it so far, good to see the overwhelmingly majority of games have been played and, as you say, hopefully last week's 24-0 results won't become too common.

Culcheth obviously look the team to beat - not see Little Hulton yet and Woolston were a good young side.

Most games have been competitive and its shaping up well.

Enjoying it here also! Very topsy-turvy, one week we've got 40+ lads and are fielding 2 sides, the next week we're struggling for 17. All down to work, injuries and holidays.

Culcheth topping the table, but I've personally felt other sides were stronger. Certainly a competitive division, I think Ashton's loss at Little Hulton is the only blow-out score so far? We let ourselves down badly with 2 very poor performances (I didn't play in either ), but turned it around well with a good win at Crosfields last week.

Gutted about the weekend - we had a cracking double-header lined up: Broncos A vs Hindley B followed by Broncos 1sts vs Hindley A. Hindley B pulled out on Thursday and we couldn't find a replacement, and then our pitch was waterlogged (literally had ducks on it when I went to check!) and Hindley's were also underwater so we couldn't switch. Managed to get about 20 lads down for a run out and took it out on each other instead.

Our division seems pretty good for fixture completion, but the summer leagues were always going to take take to settle in.

And as soon as I say that Ashton A have conceded, can't raise a side.

Think we're looking for another opponent but it's getting a bit late...

Not having a go mate, completely understand and it was good of you to let us know early - at the end of the day we're all amateurs and injuries, work, holidays, etc can't be helped and all take priority.

We were in a similar place last summer - a few years non-stop winter & summer had taken its toll and we were more than ready for a rest, having the winter off was a god-send!

Looks like we've a game up at Burnley & Pendle now, but from having 40-odd lads available last week we're down to probably 18. Half of our pack seem to work one-on, one-off Saturdays in sync with each other, and it doesn't help that several are going to the Stone Roses gig at Heaton Park!!

Looks like alot of teams in the summer league are having the same problems. Always 10 times harder for a 2nd team to put the same side out everyweek, but i think even most 1st team are having the same probs and this is why some 2nds team are struggling.
Was always going to be hard in the first summer season, also heard a few summer teams are pulling out and going to winter not sure if its true or who the teams are.
We have been lucky this season at LH we have had good numbers well apart from the culcheth game at the start of the season, we have had a srtong team week in and week out but the last 2 weeks have been hard for us, lost 4 players out to the Hindley game with bad injuries, we had a mix team last week against ashton but a massive game and test for us tomorrow at woolston. Cant wait