With Leek’s 1sts and 2nds having a rest week in their respective leagues, the focus was on Leek’s 3rd team, as it welcomed the top team in Division 5 of the North West NOWIRUL leagues, Marple 2nds.

With Leek 3rds in 2nd place, this promised to be a close, keenly contested match and so it proved both on the score sheet and with the teams’ actions as they shared 12 tries in a pulsating game that could have gone either way.

The game kicked off on top field in good conditions and Marple scored first with 4 minutes on the clock. A good conversion followed. 0-7.
4 minutes later and Liam Hill responded for Leek with an unconverted try. 5-7.
3 minutes later and Neil Edge, edged Leek into a lead with another try. 10-7.
The scoring kept on coming as both teams ran hard at each other and Marple responded on 18 minutes with their 2nd try. It was converted and retook the lead at 10-14.
Harry Byrne was next to score from full back but again the conversion missed but Leek led 15-14.
As the try was scored, the referee yellow carded a Marple forward to persistent infringements and Leek scored their 4th try on 23 minutes with Liam Hill’s 2nd try. This time, Jack Winfield’s conversion was good, and Leek stretched their lead to 22-14.
3 minutes later and the inside centre broke through tackles to score by the posts for Marple. The conversion was good, and Leek’s lead was pegged to a point at 22-21.
There ensued a period of 12 minutes until half time without a score, which was an unusual in itself in this game, but having played up the slope and against a wind, Leek was well positioned to take advantage in the 2nd half.

Half Time:

Leek 22 – 21 Marple.

With just 3 minutes on the clock into the 2nd half, Liam Hill completed his hat trick of tries as the centre burst through tackles in a strong drive. Jack Winfield followed up with a good conversion, and Leek were up to 29-21.
On 46 minutes, Marple hit back and scored their next converted try to get to within a point of Leek at 29-28 and then deservedly took the lead on 49 minutes with another long range try with good passing and support. This try was unconverted, but Marple took the lead at 29-33. Leek’s Gary Duffin received a yellow card at the try for repeated infringement for offside.
No surprise then to see Marple stretch their lead 3 minutes later as Leek began to miss tackled and another converted try pushed the Cheshire side up to 29-40 on 56 minutes.

There had been issues in the first half for the referee as he warned the Marple coach about shouting out and again on 58 minutes, the captain was summoned to help deal with the situation as the calling out escalated. Then on 61 minutes, a 2nd yellow card for Marple was shown and this proved to be the turning point in the game.
From the resulting penalty, Neil Edge stepped up to score his 2nd try and with Jack Winfield’s good conversion, it narrowed the gap to 36-40 on 71 minutes. Then followed 10 minutes of great rugby from both sides as they both tried to claim the next score. On 81 minutes, a 22m drop out for Marple only found Tom Laverick on his own 10 metre line. The stocky winger, still showing his pace from younger days, burst through the first 3 tackles, as he reached the Marple 22. He then saw the gap and raced through to beat the despairing tackles from both sides as he crashed over by the posts. The conversion from Jack Winfield was good, and Leek led 43-40 with 2 minutes to play, indicated by the referee.
The kick off proved crucial as the Leek forwards secured the ball and with Neil Edge controlling his forwards, they set up a series of rucks before the ball came back to Edge who kicked it into touch for the end of the game.

It had been a good, hard game of rugby and all players deserve credit for getting on with the game.

The result puts Leek 1 point ahead of Marple at the top of the table, but Marple has a game in hand, and these 2 teams will have to meet later in the season for what could prove to be a very important match.

Still, there are a few teams in this league that are competitive and could win it.

Next Saturday, Leek 3rds host Carrington with a 2.15 KO on top field.