Rossendale 57 – 15 Cleckheaton

A game to forget for Cleckheaton who weren't allowed to get into their stride by a dominant Rossendale XV, who had pace and power across the park.

Cleckheaton made headway in the early stages of the game and spent the opening 10 minutes of the match in Rossendale’s 22. The homeside’s defence proved solid though and Cleckheaton eventually spilled the ball. Rossendale capitalised, turning defence into attack and broke up Cleckheaton’s right flank with Curtis Strong going in against the run of play. Steve Nutt added the conversion. Cleckheaton went further behind when Rossendale turned over a Cleckheaton scrum on the half way line and ran up Cleck’s blindside for a try for Moon. Nutt converting again from more or less the same spot. A pattern was emerging and the trend continued with Cleck trying to dent the home side's defence 30m from Rossendale's line, the ball hit the floor and was hacked on by opposition winger, Foxen, who kicked on again for a 70m try . Peel got Rossendale's bonus point try to end a demoralising 30 minutes for Cleckheaton. Steve Nutt added his 3rd conversion of the afternoon to give his team a commanding 26-0 lead.

Cleckheaton were down but not out and hit back before half time when Iain Gordon, returning to the club after 3 seasons in London, chipped over the defence and Josh Hall collected for a try in the corner. The conversion was missed but Gordon reduced Cleckheaton's deficit to 26-8 with a penalty goal just before half time.

Cleckheaton were theoretically still in the game as the second period got underway but within minutes Rossendale won a 5m scrum and their big pack edged their way over the whitewash for No.8, Ryan McKibbin, to score. Cleckheaton returned the compliment when No.8 and captain, Richard Piper, forced his way over to bring the scores to 31-15 with Iain Gordon's conversion but this was the last time that Cleckheaton would trouble the scoreboard despite their efforts. Rossendale were simply too good on the day and with forthright determination, good awareness of space and the pace to finish, went in for another 4 unanswered tries bringing their total to 9 on the day and a fairly staggering 30 tries in the last 3 matches.

Cleckheaton need to put this game behind them as quickly as possible and focus on the task in hand, which is to welcome Sandal, relegated from National 2 in April, back down to Moorend this Saturday. Last time the Wakefield men visited Cleckheaton the final score was 3-3, which despite the low score, or more to the point because of it, was an absolutely thriller.

The Kestrels kept the club in good cheer with a Merit League win over the reserves of National 1 team Hull Ionians. Tries for Craig Blackburn, Matthew Hadfield, Ben Thrower and Brad Marsden secured the five league points and 3 conversions from Ronan Evans brought the final score to 26-12. The win puts the team in 4th place in the Yorkshire Premiership Merit League after the first month of action.

The mighty Fourths enjoyed a win 26-14 over Old Crossleyans 2nd team and for the first time, certainly in a while, Cleckheaton officially put out a veterans side, who travelled with the 1st team to play Rossendale's vets. The ‘Old Cleckers’ won the game 27-12 with Andy Corfield, Kevin Enright, Nick Wagstaff, Mick Howard and Jake Grimsdale crossing the whitewash, in what was a thoroughly enjoyable outing for these maturing athletes.