Kestrels hold on to beat Yarnbury at home.

The kestrels ground out a hard fought win in a scrappy game at moorend.

The kestrels had to make a few enforced changes due to unavailability from the previous week with the back line been disrupted with centres Lamb and Blackburn missing which resulted in 2 back row players in there.

The forwards had to make changes due to illness and players pushing up into the 1sts
With Thrower, Holland and Beasty all missing.

From the start the Kestrels pressed but were hit on the break by Yarnbury which resulted in their 10 going in under the posts.

Kestrels soon replied with a Penalty 40 metes out from Jarrod Tolson.

From the restart Cleck continued the forward momentum with Nathan Clayton driving the ball in this resulted in a rolling maul in to the visitors 22, which resulted in Liam Goldthorpe going on a powerful run shrugging off 4 attempted tackles before going in under the posts for his 3rd try in 4 games. Tolson kicked the extras.

Five minutes later Goldthorpe set off on another strong run feeding Patrick Horrigon who made good ground going through the centre of a ruck to increase the lead further Tolson again added the extras.

Cleck now had a lead of 17-7 with only 25 minutes gone, the next 15 minutes saw a succession of injuries happen to the home side with Horrgon, Aiden Bullen, Mark Fletcher and Ricky Motlib all having to leave the field before half time which greatly disjointed the Kestrels.

The 2nd period started with colt Lewis Beasty going in at scrum half for the injured Fletcher who had taken a misplaced knock into a delicate part of his anatomy. Which resulted in him having to take a 20min rest as nobody would massage the affected area for him.

Yarnbury came out by far the stronger side and 3 converted penalties in 15 minutes reduced Clecks lead to a single point.

The kestrels though came back strong and looked to have scored when Adam Stanley went in the corner only to be pulled back for a very dubious forward pass. The wingman then stayed down in the in goal area with cramp in both legs and took no further part. From the resultant scrum Fletcher went over but was held up.

The front row of Goldthorpe, Andy Corfield and Jimmy Haigh were dominant in the front row all day causing problems at all the scrums and took an important ball against the head to set up the decisive score by Tolson who went in under the posts and converted.

Yarnbury again never gave up and were rewarded with another converted try in the last minute.

Man of match goes to the Cleck back row of Rob Bennet, Nathan Clayton and Bob Depledge who worked tirelessly all afternoon especially the last 20 minutes when the front five were visibly weakening in open play.

The Kestrels are now getting into the habit of grinding out results in tight games