The Starship enterprise gets blown off course.

The maroons assembled a motley crew for this week's mission, a tricky outing to (not so) local rivals high flying Littleborough.

Clitheroe started slowly and were immediately on the wrong side of the ref who, to be absolutely fair to him at best was poor. We were clearly a special game where a number of old rules were relaxed and a number of new ones tested. Let's hope for the sake of the game normal rules are used next week.

Clitheroe showed great purpose and resilience on a windy grey day but really struggled with the breakdown interpretation and found themselves 10 day. It was a testament to the strength of the defensive that Littleborough resorted to kicking in a gale so early in the game. After some strong running in the three quarters Luke Mcmahon, back from a short stint in Belmarsh, made room for Super Sam White to carve through, Luke comfortably added the extras much to the cavaliers surprise given the kicking conditions against him.

Captain Kirk's universal translator was on the blink and as the ref had asked us to refer to the 'rules' of the game so many times I was nominated to find some loop holes in whatever rules he was applying. Sadly to no avail just before half time the cavaliers lost a promising field position and ended up in their own 22 after yet another infringement and on the stroke of half time Littleborough struck. I know know the move they used is common in the NFL and is known as a shotgun in I believe, where each defensive player (in this case Dave Watson and Matt Walton) is tackled or blocked off the ball whilst some showboater crashes through (not before ensuring he pinballed through his own blockers to really add insult to injury). With scores like that being allowed it seemed the maroons were toast although with the score
now 17 - 7 the second half could have been a shocker especially with tempers as frayed as they were.

The defensive effort of the first half proved to be the catalyst for a cracking second half. The good covering of the three quarters and wings had sapped the resolve of the Littleborough backs and there pack was getting no change from their round at the maroons and the Clitheroe set piece was sensational and the maroons enjoyed a very strong start to the second half, Luke Sam and Connor combined to create space outside and our favourite Frenchman Bruno blazed round the corner, great recycling work by the evergreen Richard Thornber and the Waltons (who are improving rapidly with every game and with luck will soon be bolstering the 1s) the quick ball came back from Watson to Mcmahon who drew the 10 and 12 (who i think just wanted to hit him) missed Sam to Connor who found Bleasdale who promptly skipped through the remaining defenders to score a beautiful try (I was so far behind play I saw the whole thing they moved the ball the width of the pitch and back). Mcmahon, clearly in the mood added the extras.

Sadly more confusion in the interpretation of who could do what at a breakdown with Clitheroe applying the new rules in the first half less successfully than their more streetwise opponents and once again a dominant field position was blown away. Clitheroe were pinned down in their 22 they secured the line out ball but got a bit carried away and decided to try hot potato leaving Luke with the ball two flankers and a scrum half to contend with, he dealt with the flankers with a beautiful step but then belted the clearence at the scrum half who gathered the rebound and scored. That took the scores to 23-14.

With 20 minutes to go the cavaliers were still well in the game and in the most ridiculous way on top now of every aspect (luckily the rfu abandoned the trial of the new beakdown rules after 55 minutes) and the maroons were in control.

Sadly that control led to Connor White having the audacity to make a break having been released by by his brother Sam and nearly went the length of the pitch only to be hauled down in the oppos 22. Que debate on the tackle laws, in the first half a number of maroon players were penalised for going high when the were tackling across the chest, Connor was caught with a (certainly banned in the first half and I think in the rest of the game some time ago) seat belt tackle, the ref didn't blow and Littleborough scrambled a clearance. Sam asked the ref to explain the rules to him and the ref decided that he didn't to explain so suggested he took ten minutes to read up on the rules. I must say it was a particularly odd decision, but the game was still there for the maroons.

To their credit Littleborough clung on for the remaining 14 minutes, but ultimately couldn't keep Clitheroe out who scored again just after the end of the game with the extras added a losing bonus point secured.

Overall a massively disappointing outcome but that was because the team did so many good things, the front row scrummage superbly and the line out was solid, the back row grew into the game and the three quarters were simply magnificent with ball in hand in awful conditions a lot of positives but not the win bring on hoppers.

Report by WJ