Ashton u Lyne 7 – 22 Didsbury Toc H

Didsbury, upto Saturday, have been lucky with injuries and were able to name a fairly unchanged team to the one that was victorious 72-7 the previous week.

There is a strange quirk when Didsbury visit Ashton, the home side always seems to score the first try early in the match. And Saturday was no exception, as the big Ashton pack managed to rumble over from a well worked lineout. The conversion was added and the home crowd could sense an upset may be on the cards, but Didsbury regrouped behind the posts and refocused their efforts. The Didsbury pack began to make ground with hard running by Phil Cooper, Aidan Murphy and James Eames. Ashton’s stubborn defence was very well organised and it took a penalty kick by Euan Wilder to get Didsbury off the mark, 7-3. Didsbury followed this up, and took the lead, with a well worked try by Shaun Bishop. Didsbury spread the ball wide from their own half and great interplay between Bishop and Pete Davies saw Bishop score out wide. Wilder missed the tricky conversion, but Toc H had the lead 7-8. Ashton, playing with the wind in the first half, won a lineout in the same position as they scored from earlier and were clearly expectant to repeat the feat. The home side won the ball, but Didsbury repelled the attack and managed to turn the ball over. A series of penalties pushed the home side deep into their own territory and a number of forward drives were thwarted just short of the try line, the visitors centre pairing of Williams and Popoola crashed the ball through several times close to scoring but the home defence stood strong and cleared their lines each time. It took the pace of Davies to create another chance out wide, he combined again with Bishop who chipped the ball forward and dived on it behind the posts for his second try of the game. Wilder added the conversion taking Didsbury into the break two scores ahead at 7-15.

The second half was a rather turgid affair, with Didsbury using the wind to maintain field position and the home side unable to put real distance on their clearing kicks the game was at a stalemate. The only real highlight of the second half was a well deserved try for Davies, the flying winger showed good strength to break a number of tackles to race under the posts. Wilder again added the kick to extend the lead to 7-22.

A well deserved victory for Toc H against an organised team who should do well this season. One big problem for Didsbury is the news that influential captain and hooker Mike Hyde has a badly broken hand, and could miss six weeks of action. This is a setback for the Ford Lane outfit, but the strength of squad will have to cope with the loss.