Bolton 4th 43 vs Tyldesley 3rd 8

... but the caller was insistent that they were coming to play. Only problem was that i still didn’t have a ref. With 2 x “not available” from the league association refs, and 3 x “not available” from club personnel who have been known to take up whistling duties, i was struggling. And an hour to go. One last desperate phone call to one of our junior section parents and “i’ve just got in from work, but yes i can do it, i’ll be with you by 2:45”. Thank you Neil Liles.

Tyldesley arrived with 8 players, made up of a front 5, as scrum half, a back and someone who had never played before! We lent them 5 players. Game on. After a tetchy 10 minutes Bolton opened the scoring, with Nick Bridges appearing in the backs to cross the line. 5 – 0. Within 5 more minutes Alistair Wilde had powered his way over to score his first of the day. 10 – 0. Then the highlight of the game, as two Tyldesley players suddenly developed a dislike for each other and started their own intra-team brawl ! Punches were thrown and they were separated by the Tyldesley and Bolton players. Tackle of the game occurred shortly after this point, as Andy Jolly put his considerable bulk in front of the attacking Tyldesley loan player, Joshua France, who rebounded backwards and flattened the player behind him. But from that point on the floodgates had opened. A quick succession of tries, with firstly Ben Hill crossing for his first try in quite a few weeks. Captain Keith Howie added the conversion. 17 – 0. Amazingly, then Bridges added his second, 24 – 0.

The Wilde added his second, 31 – 0. The half closed with Gareth Flounders, fresh from his 2nd team debut the week before, scoring with a pacy run down the wing which had echoes of his similar score the week before. 38 – 0.

With the 5 loan players swopped over at half time, Bolton seemed to lose their shape and the second half wasn’t a good half. Unfortunately due to the rain and the scoring frequency in the first half, my match report paper had begun to disintegrate and i couldn’t make any more notes. Tyldesley scored a try after lazy defending. 38 – 5. Tom Comery wiggled his way thru the visitors defence to score a fine solo try. 43 – 5. In the closing minutes, Flounders (playing for Tyldesley) scooped a drop-goal over, 43 – 8.

Not the best game of the season, but a win is a win. Bolton will need to be on better form for their final two home games of the league season, before heading off to the Raging Bull final on 4th May.