An 80th minute interception from Ronan Evans turned an 18-18 stalemate into a very welcome victory, topping off a brave and hard working performance from a depleted Cleckheaton team.

Work and long arranged trips to Twickenham meant 3 of the home side's regular back line were absent for this re-arranged fixture. The changes brought Josh Hall back into the team at No.13 after a long run of unavailability and Danny Vento made up the centre partnership, playing his first game this season due to work commitments in London. Matt Piper switched to his junior rugby position of scrum half and the trio combined superbly for Cleckheaton’s first try. Hall drove the ball in hard on Cleckheaton’s left side, almost making it to the whitewash and then a well-timed pass from the back of the ruck by Piper, hit Vento on an angled run and the centre forced his way over to put Cleckheaton 5 points up after as many minutes. The conversion drifted wide.

Lymm’s came into the game on the back of a 4 match winning run and ran the ball at Cleckheaton with confidence. However the Moorender’s defence proved solid with Paul Turner, Ryan Piercy and Richard Piper putting in some strong tackles. Mid way through the half the teams exchanged penalty kicks with Richard McEvoy scoring for Lymm and a minute later, Ronan Evans obliging for Cleckheaton. As the half drew to a close Evans struck another penalty goal to give the home team a 11-3 lead at the break.

Cleckheaton’s game plan had kept the ball away from Lymm in the first half, leaving them few opportunities and this continued for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd period. Matt Piper had many a willing runner from the back of each ruck with Tom Austin and Luke Pearson always willing to run the ball in and Jack Seddon proving a handful for the defence every time he took possession. With half an hour left to play Lymm sprang into life and gave a glimpse of why they have been beating teams recently with two pacey breaks from in their own half. Both were well supported attacks with McEvoy getting one try and Mark Wells the other within the space of 3 minutes. McEvoy converted one of them to suddenly propel Lymm into a 15-11 lead and then extended this further with a penalty goal. Cleckheaton had played well but here was a test of their metal as they found themselves 7 points behind. It was to the delight of the crowd that they dug deep and worked their way back into the game. A penalty secured a line-out 15m metres out and the team’s trademark catch and drive swung into action with Andy Piper getting the ball down. Evans coolly slotted the conversion from the touch line side to level the scores. Cleckheaton had a shot at goal from 40m out with a couple of minutes left. The effort had the distance but drifted to the left. Lymm regained possession following the 22 re-start but an ambitious long pass across the back line was plucked out of the air by Evans who scampered to the line with glee. The same player converted ending Lymm's 4 match winning run and landing 4 match winning points for Cleckheaton.

This was a performance full of character from Cleckheaton who have now won all 3 of their home matches in 2016. On Saturday the team travels to Stockport for a game both sides would dearly love to win. If Cleckheaton play with the belief and commitment they demonstrated in this game then the points will be heading back to West Yorkshire.