Heaton Moor travelled to Bolton on this rain soaked Sunday morning. Both teams fielded 8 players. The sides were well matched for speed, size and tenacity and Heaton moor started the better team with Bolton slipping into old habits.
The game was level at half time 0 v 0.
Heaton Moor seemed to enjoy the mud more than Bolton and quickly scored two tries after the break.
Excellent last ditch tackling by Josh Grundy and Ben Turner saved Bolton the blushes as the score could have been greater.
Bolton came back into the game with 5 minutes to go before full time with a try by Alex Ramwell.
Great running by James Entwistle who worked hard in the mauls always seemed to get stopped just short of the Heaton Moor line.
Ben Turner soon levelled the score after his previous run was stopped 1 metre short of the line, with a darting run and this time no one was stopping him.
The score level and it could have gone either way and unfortunatley it did. Heaton Moors 'speedster' on the wing ran down the touchline and touched down over the white wash just on the final whistle to cries from the Bolton players of 'foot in touch' but the try was awarded and the final score was three tries to two to Heaton Moor.
Player of the match award went to Josh Grundy for inspired running and tackling.
Although wet and cold the players and coaches decided to play another small match of ten minutes.
Bolton found new belief in this match and fantastic 'bridging' by Milo Holmes, Matthew Moore went over to score his first try.
Alex Ramwell added another shortly later and after a penalty Matthew powered over for his second try of this match. The final match was 3 v 0 to Bolton. Perhaps in hindsight the game should have been played this way around.
It was a great match however and all the players trudged off the field cold and wet, to deserved pie and beans.