MATCH REPORT: Vale of Lune 31 - 24 Blackburn – North West Division 1

Barry Lees reports on a welcome victory for Vale of Lune RUFC on Saturday.

In the windless Autumn greyness, Powder House Lane acknowledged both the Remembrance Day silence and the noisy celebration of Jack Ayrton's 250th first team appearance. Bringing the past and the present together through the community of sport.

Returning from injury, Luke Procter, Jamie Mayall and Jordan Dorrington lined up to face near neighbours Blackburn. With both sides lying together in the NW1 table, a close game was predicted. The form book went out of the window, then swiftly came back in.

Within a minute of Mr Harding's initial whistle, Blackburn burned through all tacklers to strike at the Vale try-line, but desperate defending kept them out by millimetres. The Vale came back strongly from that initial wake-up call.

The halfback pairing of Briggs and Swarbrick was at the core of the Vale's newly found dominance on the game. Forced errors in the Blackburn half resulted in a penalty kick for Jamie Mayall from 25 metres out. Over it went and nerves were settled. A slick move across from the right flank to the left put winger Isaac Cook in for his first try for the side.

Mayall kept the kicks coming, including another conversion after Sam Wallbank battered his way over the line to score the Vale's second try. Another thrusting phase on the right edge of the field resulted in a try for winger Ben McGarvey. Mayall's skills brought the half time score to a one-dimensional 24 - 0 to the Vale.

The restart went Vale's way as before. Dokter, Butler and Macfarlane brought the renewed energy, but it was full-back Damon Hall who found a space in the Blackburn twenty-two metre area, and darted through it to score Vale's important fourth try under the posts.

Vale were rampant and seemed unstoppable with Mayall and Macfarlane each making forty metre solo advances onto Blackburn turf. Just when it seemed that Blackburn were all out of ideas, they made some changes of their own, and the game turned around with surprising results.

The fluent passing game, lacking in the first half, kicked in to earn Blackburn ground and confidence. A winger's finish on the left appeared to be mere consolation, but their next try looked more serious. With the score at 31-14, Sam Wallbank's yellow card made it harder to the Vale to keep Blackburn out.

Two more tries in the right corner narrowed the gap to a worrying margin. The Vale held out with dogged defending, whilst the visitors smelled a memorable victory.

The final whistle brought relief to the home support. The cream of the forwards was Josh Sutcliffe, whilst Jamie Mayall's five placekicks from five was also a bit special. Five league points for Vale and two for Blackburn was the final tally. After a lean spell points-wise, Vale were once again asserting their claim to be competing in this league. Rising from ninth to seventh in the table. Vale take a well-earned break next Saturday. Their next league fixture will be away against old rivals Bowdon on the 21st of November. Kick off at 2.15pm.

Team: A. Fowler, M. Bradshaw, J. Crompton, J. Sutcliffe, S. Wallbank, J. Lashley, S. Walton, J. Ayrton, B. Swarbrick, A. Briggs, B. McGarvey, J. Mayall, J. Dorrington, I. Cook, D. Hall. Reps: H. Clifton. T. Butler, L. Procter, J. Macfarlane, H. Dokter.