Leek leapfrogged Stockport to move into fourth place in Regional 1 North West - their highest ever league position - after a thrilling 34-22 win at St Edward's Park.

The Moorlanders scored five tries to the visitors' three for a deserved win in front of a boisterous home crowd. And with Burton losing to league leaders Anselmians, the blue and whites are only one point off third place!

On a cold, clear afternoon the teams started the match level on points in the league. Most were expecting a close game and the first half delivered just that. Stockport's big pack worked hard to control things in the early stages, hitting rucks and making tackles with purpose. They took the lead with a penalty on nine minutes.

The Leek defence was resilient and made their opponents work hard for every yard, but Stockport moved further ahead with the game's first try on 18 minutes. But the Moorlanders had been growing into the match and hit back straight away, Joe Gorman crossing after multiple phases had worked the opening.

The more mobile Leek forwards were beginning to boss the game and another multi-phase period of possession saw Sam Brereton cross in the corner to make it 10-8 at half time.

We might have expected things to remain tight in the second period, but it was anything but. Connor Bassett's interception on halfway saw him outpace the cover defence to score under the posts after just five minutes, Joe Byrne converting.

A charge down soon after the restart saw another breakaway score with Byrne crossing the whitewash. He converted and added a penalty soon after to help Leek pull away to 24-8.

Stockport tried to reimpose some control to the game and things became more attritional. They scored from close range on 67 minutes to narrow the deficit. But any thoughts of a comeback were blown away by another breakaway score, Lewis Dunleavy regathering a loose ball and sprinting past the despairing Stockport cover.

With time running out, a little niggle began to creep into the game. A flare up near the Leek line saw a player from each time yellow carded. The visitors claimed their third try, but were unable to claim a fourth and the game ended with Leek threatening another score.

To add to the celebrations, the table-topping thirds scored a whopping 64-0 win over visitors Littleborough. The 2nds lost 50-19 to Stafford 1s.