Kirby Lonsdale 73 – Bolton 2nd XV 7

...on Saturday to play the team who had gained promotion alongside them in the previous year.

Bolton had a number of notable absentees not least their Captain and Vice Captains the Sandbrook twins. Although to be completely fair, neither of them are much good and probably wouldn't have made a difference.

Bolton started brightly and for the first 20 mins more than held their own against the home side. Sterling drives from the two props Morton and Evans gouged huge holes in the home defence accompanied by support from the ever present Bridges and Cheetham around the fringes. Time and time again Morton fired through the home defence but Kirkby quickly realised that they were not going to go through the forwards and switched to using the extra man in the back line scoring two fast tries both of which were converted.

Bolton fired back at the home team and following a good line out take and a fierce rolling maul Morton was held up over the line.

From the ensuing scrum Bolton pushed the home back over the line with Manny Tailor scoring his first of the season from the unusual position of Number 8.

Kirkby Lonsdale again came back at the Bolton side and some slip shod defending allowed Kirkby one more try before half time.

Bolton tried hard throughout the 2nd half however the missing player and the lack of recent match fitness began to tell and the stronger home team began to run in tries as the legs gave way. Notable mentions go to James Timms who worked hard throughout the match in both attack and defence as well as veteran scrum half Andy Leigh who rolled back the years to show glimpses of the his hey day