Ashton u Lyne 27 – 27 Didsbury Toc H

Ashton are always a tough, combative side, particularly at home, and Saturday was no different as the home side started well. Didsbury, understandably due to their disjointed preseason, started slowly and took sometime to get into the match. Toc H opened the scoring with a Pete Davies penalty, but the lead was short lived as a charged down kick was gathered by Ashton to score a converted try. Rusty Didsbury started to find the form which so nearly brought them promotion last season and the dangerous backline started to cut holes in the home defence. Chris Harley made a fine break down the right wing, but he appeared to heading down a blind alley with defenders looking to force him into tough. But Harley cleverly flicked the ball in field to the ever alert Gaz Oakley who raced in for a try. Davies added the conversion to give the visitors a 7-10 lead. Toc H perceptibly upped the tempo of the game and started to stretch Ashton across the park. Ashton, who were playing into a stiff breeze, failed to find touch with a kick and captain Mike Hyde caught the high ball and set up fullback Dylan Williams down the wing. Williams cutely dummied three or four players to make space for himself to dive in the corner. Davies expertly added the conversion in the tricky conditions. Didsbury continued the pressure and added a third try before the break. Davies made a clean break and set up hard running centre Andy Popoola to score and give a half time lead of 7-22.

The second half belonged to Ashton, they intelligently used their effective rolling maul to force Didsbury back. The home side scored a clever try from a grubber kick and soon added a penalty to close the gap to 17-22. Didsbury scored their forth try with another fantastic break by Davies, who again set up Popoola to score. The conversion was missed, but Didsbury would have thought they had done enough at 17-27. But to Ashton’s credit they struck back with two tries, the second of which was perhaps questionable. But the home sides fly half held his nerve to convert the final kick of the game to level the scores 27-27. The referee consulted the rules and as the number of tries and conversions scored was level the away team goes through to the next round.

Didsbury will look to improve on a truncated performance, but they played well in periods. Next Saturday Didsbury begin their league campaign with Old Bedians visiting Ford Lane, 3pm kick off.