Kirby Lonsdale 37 - 10 Didsbury Toc H

Didsbury made the trip into Cumbria with a fairly strong squad, but without Andy Swan (injured), Dylan Williams (unavailable), James Southall (injured), and Neil Wilkinson (injured).

The match was played in glorious Autumnal sunshine at the well-appointed Kirby Lonsdale ground, and both teams made promising starts. Didsbury lost a player to the sin-bin after only 10 minutes,
but the visiting team battled hard and despite conceding 6 points managed to create several potential scoring chances. When back to their full compliment Didsbury competed well at the breakdown area, and the backrow of Aidan Murphy, Dave Foster and Mark Harrison made several breaks and bone crunching tackles. Didsbury's harrying defensive line lead to a large quantity of turnover ball, and Murphy capitalised on the territory by breaking through several would be tackles to race to the tryline. Sean Bishop duly converted pushing Didsbury into a 1 point lead, 6-7. This lead was extended by a well taken Bishop penalty, and solid defence from Didsbury's back three of Richie Bray, Olly Thomas and Sam Wallis quelled a number of Kirby's attacks. With halftime nearing the home side were awarded a somewhat contraversial try, with the attackers appearing to knock-on at least twice in the process of scoring. But the score was given by the referee and the home side went into the break 11-10 ahead.

The second half should have seen Didsbury making use of the considerable slope to their advantage, but the home team upped their efforts, and despite some resilient Didsbury defence a number of tries were leaked towards the end of the game.

Kirby Lonsdale deserved their victory, but Didsbury can take heart from their competitiveness in the first half and will be looking to secure league points with the visit of Upper Eden to Ford Lane next Saturday (3pm kick off).