Cleckheaton came incredibly close to pulling off a sizeable upset against second in the league Rossendale, but were denied in the dying minutes. This was a performance that the team should take great heart from as they matched their opponents try for try but lost out on successful conversions. A last gap penalty could have still taken the spoils for Cleckheaton with the last kick of the game but unfortunately it was not to be

The first half was tightly contested affair with Cleckheaton’s forwards, led by the rampaging Richard Piper and Ryan Piercy, making plenty of headway against Rossendale’s defence. Tactical kicking from Matt Piper, as had been evident on his return against Ilkley 2 weeks ago, also helped Cleckheaton to play in the right areas of the field. Niall Jackson took a high shot in the middle of the park half way through the first period, and the crowd waited eagerly to see what the referee would do following the recently issued IRB edict that insists he brandishes a red or a yellow card for such offences. The outcome was a disappointing neither! Cleckheaton had made could headway upfield since the incident which may be why the card was forgotten and before Rossendale could completely clear their lines, good work from the forwards committed Rossendale’s defence to Cleckheaton’s left flank and Jack Bickerdike and Neil Chivers quickly sent the ball to the right where Josh Hall crossed for the first try of the match. The conversion was difficult and drifted wide. There was no further score in the half but on the stroke of half time, Cleckheaton were awarded a penalty in a fairly central location but on the 40m line. Try Scorer Hall stepped up to take the kick and gave it a generous thwack, but agonisingly it hit the crossbar and bounced in field, whereupon it was quickly dispatched out of play from the boot of a Rossendale defender to close the first period.

During the break Rossendale regrouped and restarted with renewed vigour. They attacked Cleckheaton’s line with determination and a tackle from Lee Queeley was deemed to not involve sufficient arm and the centre was given 10 minutes in the bin. Rossendale continued to exert the pressure and Jack Ward forced his way over from close range. James Bramhall added the extras for the visitors to give them a 7-5 lead. Cleckheaton responded in tremendous fashion and battled their way down field. They won a line out on the visitors’ 22m and a perfect throw from Ben Thrower was caught and set by the pack before fast hands across the entire back line but Ollie Depledge in at the corner, with an acrobatic dive that saw the winger just get the ball to ground a split second before his body hit the grass over the side line. The conversion was missed.

Unfortunately from the restart Cleckheaton lost possession and their joy at re-taking the lead was short lived as Curtis Strong gathered for Rossendale and using his two very handy assets of power and pace, pushed over one Cleckheaton tackler before racing around another for a well taken but defensively soft try. The conversion made the scores 14-10 to the visitors. Cleckheaton however were not done and Richard Piper, who had led from the front all game powered his way over with a number of defenders hanging from him to give the lead back to Cleckheaton once again. Ronan Evans on the field from the subs bench added the conversion to give Cleck a 17-14 lead with under 10 minutes left to play. Rossendale slowly worked their way up field and in desperation to stop the forwards getting quick ruck ball, Paul Turner handled the pill on the floor. The referee had no choice but to sin bin Cleckheaton’s prop and Rossendale opted for a scrum from which they duly scored. The conversion was missed giving Rossendale a 2 point lead. With the very last play Cleckheaton had a difficult penalty goal attempt, which if successful, would have brought the win but it was not to be. Good performance all round from Cleckheaton and they need to take the same game to Sandal whom they meet away this weekend

The Kestrels travelled up to Ripon last Saturday and returned with plenty of cheer, having beaten the North Yorkshire men 10-5.