Bolton u14's 17 v Widnes u14's 12

Bolton's record this season is played 8, lost 8. Yet everyone knew they are not a bad team with small lapses costing them in many games, indeed they have been leading in most games. With that record the idea of playing Widnes, who hammered Bolton last year, was probably causing a degree of consternation.
The Bolton squad then suffered an amazing number of withdrawals - injuries, illness, hangovers, acute lethargy and for all I know martian abduction saw the squad of 30+ reduce to 17 (though it became 18 when a player turned up half way thru' the 2nd half). In a bizarre twist Widnes suffered the same misfortune and had a bare 15 players.
Although the overnight deluge had stopped, the pitches were pretty damp and with the wind varying from very strong to stupidly strong and varying massively in direction it was a day when any kicking was a lottery.
The opening 10 minutes saw both teams competing well but the slippery ball led to numerous handling errors, this was compounded by the number of players who thought that 'blades' or molded studs were the order of the day - they weren't.
The opening 10 minutes were even in terms of possession, though territoriality Widnes held sway - well actually the wind did. Eventually a Widnes scrum saw the ball carried down the blindside but scrum half Jack Good dislodged the ball, playing scrum advantage Josh Nicholson scooped up the ball and simply cantered in from 80mtrs, 5-0. With only a couple of minutes left on the clock Widnes eventually broke thru the up'til then solid Bolton defence to make it 5-5 at half time.
The second half was a reverse of the 1st, with the advantage of the wind Bolton pretty well camped in the Widnes half. A Bolton scrum saw #8 Evan Dare 'pick & go' and he simply battered his way thru the Widnes defence and very thoughtfully ran behind the posts - so Jack had an 'easy' conversion, well the ball fell off the tee but he kept concentration to make the score 12-5. After around 18 mins Evan decided the adage 'if it works once...', picked up from a ruck and again stormed over, so 17-5. From the kick off a spilled ball saw a Widnes scrum on the Bolton 10mtr line, they won the ball and a dinky run saw them close the score to 17-12. With under 5 minutes left both sides knew the result could go either way but to a large extent simply cancelled each other out and with the clock in the red Widnes tried a kick down the right wing but Josh Bentley Hughes had spotted the danger and simply kicked the ball out.
A cracking game, played in a superb spirit and well refereed by Mike from Widnes. Every single Bolton player stepped up a level, many had their best game of the season, some their best ever, including the undoubted 'man of the match' Evan Dare.
PS. Just to clarify for 'Safeguarding' the reference to hangovers is parental, not players!