Been quiet on here of late...

So how did our friends in division 3 find the opening weekend? The good news is every fixture was completed!

We held on for a very tough win against Bolton, a new looking Bolton side from last year, a bigger and tougher pack but perhaps a lack of experience out wide in the backs - nevertheless this was a very hard fought win. If I'm honest I'm not sure we deserved it, we turned into a team of individuals and gave away penalty after penalty for offsides - some lads don't learn. Losing a key halfback after 5 minutes didn't help but no excuse for a below-par performance. Bolton meanwhile showed good shape, defended fiercely, some excellent hands and were well organised.

Looking good for Bury & Bolton - both clubs also fielded 'A' teams before the Div 3 game - Bury ran out 64-16 winners against a very inexperienced Mets side, but putting the result to one side it's great news both club had more than enough for 2 squads each, and this before the Union season or universities finish. So much so we even made rlAndy Wilson's write-up in the Guardianrl.

I'd say the only surprise result was Little Hulton turning over Wigan on their own patch:
Fitton Hill 10 - 28 Langworthy
Widnes Tigers 31 - 10 Pilkington Recs
Bury Broncos 22 - 14 Bolton Mets
Wigan Bulldogs 12 - 32 Little Hulton
Westhoughton Lions 12 - 30 Ashton Bears A
Orrell St James 46 - 6 Burtonwood Bridge

cant comment to much on the match v Wigan Bulldogs but a daft sending off early on in the game to a key ball player did not help. The lads though were in it first half but tired in the second.

Last Saturday we took a very young team up to Oldham and played at Higginshaw's mud bath, sorry pitch v Fitton Hill. When i say young our Half back's were 18 and 19 and our front row 22, 19, 18 and we only had 3 lads over the age of 23 playing! It probably helped as the pitch was so heavy to play on Fitton tired but unfortunately the ugly side to Fitton Hill eventually showed and the game was called early so the score may have been even more had the remaining minutes been allowed to be played. The lads who pulled on the shirt did tremendous not to be intimidated out of the game.

Hopefully we will have a few more lads back for this weekend v Bury as i suspect we will need them. Even though not directly a derby a lot of lads have played with each other at various times so has the makings of a cracker. Personally cannot wait and hoping that will get picked as first time available this season and just happens to be versus my former team and lads played a lot of rugby with.

Haha you not retired yet? Never forget your 95 metre interception at chester only to collapse a metre short of the line. Should be a cracker on Saturday, as you say lots of lads who've played together in the past. We picked up quite a few heavy knocks so not sure how the squad is looking yet, but a few familiar names will be in there!

oh you know how it goes Cronus, doing a spam and having 'one last season'

haha! best non scoring run you will ever see. Had i not thought about passing inside to send one of the young'uns over i would have been home and dry, that will teach me wont it.

Wigan Bulldogs 20-18 Ashton Bears A.
Definitely a game of two halves this one but another epic encounter. We (Ashton) started very well & created lots of scoring opportunities. Dropped passes when it would have been easier to score meant we were limited to 6-0 when we could have been out of sight. Credit to Bulldogs though they ground their way back into the game equalising just before half-time. After the break was the opposite as the Bulldogs dominated possession & went into the lead. Two more dropped passes on our line gave them chances which they took to lead 20-6. We finally started to complete & scored two good tries to get us within two points. We finished the game looking likely to score again but ran out of time. Overall pleased with the effort in our first two games after a lot of disruption lately. Another pleasing thing was two of my lads from last week combining to score the winning try in our 1st teams 26-22 victory at Simmies.

Langworthy 8 - 20 Bury

Game called early after a Langworthy lad suffered what turned out to be a broken chest bone (sternum?) and 3 ribs, this following one of their lads kopping either a broken or dislocated jaw.

First half was pretty even, though I know the Bury lads weren't happy with their performance, whilst Langy showed good form and keen defence with their young squad quick off the mark. Bury started the 2nd half strong and began to pull away with some excellent hands and sweeping ball movement, and were pretty well on top before the injury on around 60 minutes. Looks like the result stands.

Ayres Rock - pass our best wishes to your lads mate, and good to see you. Shame you went off at half time, you let Brogan out your pocket!

yeah fair assumption that Cronus. A few gaps opened up in the second half and were fully exploited.

Will do mate. Nath will be fine after the initial prognosis of a possible punctured lung / internal bleeding. discharged Sunday and a fair bit of rest to follow for him. Curt goes back on Friday to see if they can see what he has actually done to his jaw.

Was good to see you too mate. ha! if only i could make the ladies groan like i did him when i tackled him!

Bury Broncos 40-10 Ashton Bears A.
After a good win at Widnes Tigers the previous week, 13 man Ashton went down to a strong Bury side. Ashton worked hard but ultimately tiredness left gaps & the Broncos took their chances in a deserved win.
It would be easy to cite 1st team call-ups and injuries but that would detract from the efforts of the 13 that travelled.. The lads who did go up to the 1st team played well in their win at Haydock which can only bode well for later in the season when the injuries etc start to clear up.

That should be 14-man Ashton, definitely had a sub.

But yes, good effort to come down and play with such a depleted squad, I believe there were several phone calls in the morning for various reasons but your lads fronted up and didn't take a backward step. Your squad was a lot younger than I've seen them before and it told as some of our bigger lads took advantage. For most of the game we were dominant in defence and pretty good going forward, I suppose the scoreline reflects that. A 5-minute spell where some of our lads thought the game was won saw us concede 2 quick tries but they switched on again and closed out for the remainder, running in a few more tries before the whistle.

Cheers to your lads for making the trip, our lot appreciated the effort. A lot of other teams would have conceded.

Well if you call a 16 yr old who'd never touched a rugby ball before a sub, yes we had a sub but let's not split hairs eh?

He's on the team sheet, he's a sub

Anyway, Accrington 24-8 Bury. No excuses, terrible performance from us against a good, well drilled Accy side with a couple of dangerous runners. Mistake after mistake including losing the ball when over the line for a clear try, stupid decisions, chasing the game in our own 20, falling off simple tackles, etc. But for that bombed try and being held up over the line 5 times it would have been closer but our worst performance of the year by some distance and Accy deserved it.

Our 2nds also went down 32-18 against Waterhead A. Was a close game from what I've heard, with Waterhead only pulling away late on. Good performance against a much bigger and experienced side.

Bury vs Fitton Hill

Fitton cried off 30 mins before kick off. Nice one.

Suppose we get the points and they still have to come to our place, but 30 mins? Really?

Little Hulton Reds v Ashton Bears A
This game didn't go ahead because the ref deemed the pitch unplayable at 2:45pm. It was as the warm ups were coming to an end when this was brought to everyone attention and although LH went to get some sand to try to sort the bad patches the game was called off. Really not sure what happens now so we'll see what the league say on Monday. The parts of the pitch the ref wasn't happy with were very bad and had very loose sticky mud that came over the ankles so it was probably the right call. Why it was left so late is another issue though. In other news 1st team beat Clock Face to go top of the premier league for the first time in our history.

Got to say the facilities that LH are getting together are very impressive and their home changing rooms are among the best I've seen, well done to all concerned. LH started the same season we did so it's great to see how they're progressing.

Bolton 34 - 34 Bury

I wasn't there on Saturday but believe it was a pretty gripping see-saw game with the lead exchanging hands several times. We had 25 missing altogether (about 10 from 1st team) but still managed to field a 2 open age teams (2nds lost at Rochdale Cobras A), a great achievement.

Saying that, with ex-Mets players officiating like this were we always up against it! 5.18359375:5