A local derby came to a head in the 1st round of the Lancashire Plate on Saturday past at Avenue St with Bolton taking on local rivals Bury.

With the usual pleasantries exchanged, Bolton kicked off and were rapidly in the ascendancy. Green's opening tackle followed by a ferocious hit by Cooper set the bench mark for the game and the ensuing scrum saw the Bolton forwards rock their opposite numbers with a dominant drive to regain possession.

The first twenty minutes saw Bolton consistently camped in the Bury half however an early miss by new full back Barlow left Bolton with little to show for their efforts. Although the front row of Mee,Cockton and Hilton were dominant in the scrum and Stryker was imperious in the line out, Bolton could not break down the Bury line until a somewhat unusual route was found by fly half Mike Singleton. Singleton ran behind two of his own players to evade tackles before impishly side stepping the full back on a curving arc to cross the try line for the opener. Barlow unfortunately failed to add the extras.

Bury replied with a penalty of their own before Singleton kick started the second half with another audacious dummy to scoot in another five points. Returning 2nd row Chris Turner added the conversion. Immediately after this childhood protégé Bobby Bolton, revelling in representing Bolton 1st XV before he leaves for his studies at Loughborough raced through the middle of the park to add another five, however the conversion was missed.

Bury immediately sensed they needed some points to hang onto the coat tails of a resurgent Bolton and they produced a well worked break to allow their winger in to cross the whitewash. Bolton responded with some well worked and aggressive forward play with scrum half Wayne Banks rolling back the years, and half of the Bury pack with a typically pugnacious performance, snarling and biting at the opposition and most of his own pack. Continued infringements from the Bury players led to them having to commit more players to the defence which allowed Mike Singleton to squeeze through a gap to cross for his 3rd try of the game.

Bury however were not prepared to roll over and die and they fought pack with a robust set of drives before crossing the whitewash to end the scoring. A nervy few minutes for the Bolton players ensued however at the final whistle Bolton were thoroughly worth their victory and progress to the second round.Final score 24 v 13

MOM - Mike Singleton - a virtuoso performance but was allowed the space only due to the extensive efforts from the other players visible endeavours!

Bolton R.U.F.C.

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