Bold Miners 22 Pilkingtons 8

BOLD came up trumps in their first game in the Premier Division against their local rivals, but the game was overshadowed by a serious broken arm injury suffered by Recs' hooker Andy Lyons, which held up the game for 50 minutes.

Bold were soon on the score sheet when Chris Burrows took a long pass from second row Dave Hill to go over in the corner.

Bold were playing some good open rugby and when prop Paul Rigby broke away down the middle second row Neil Babbs was on hand to take the pass and sprint beneath the posts converted by Mark Saunders.

Pilkingtons to their credit began to get back in the game and a surging run from winger Dave Archer resulted in a try wide out.

From the restart a good break from Pilks number nine Lyons was finished off by centre Andy Traverse who scored in the corner. In the second half and playing down the slope Pilks threw everything at Bold but good defence from scrum half Dave Hill and centre Danny Lavin kept them out.

It took a good individual try from player coach Darren Anders who took a pass from Ian Honey to round the full back and go in under the posts. The game was held up due to Lyons' injury.

From the restart Bold sealed the game when new signing stand off Alan Fletcher sprinted through to score converted by Mark Saunders.

The Grundy Excavations man of the match went to Ian Honey with Dave Hill, Neil Babbs and Chris Burgess having excellent games.

Rochdale Mayfield U16 24 Bold Miners 12

A fine performance in Bold's first competitive game ended in a close defeat against a bigger and experienced team. Try scorers for Bold were Mike Hodson, Tom Hughes and Antony Burrows.

Outstanding efforts also came from Chris Lathom, Kyle Smith, Phil Roughsedge and Dave Burrows. Man of the match was Mike Noonan.