Winnington Park 19

Altrincham Kersal 12

Cheshire Cup

Saturday, December 23

THE defining moment of this match came in the last 10 minutes when substitute Nathan Archer scored Park's only try of the game to eliminate Kersal from the Cheshire Cup.

Under cold gloomy conditions at Burrows Hill, both sides made good starts to the match with the lively visitors making early advances into Park's half thanks to powerful and slick passing movements.

However, it was the home side who recorded the first points with two successful Gary Bell penalties when Altrincham were twice caught offside.

Kersal countered quickly and scored the ties first try by using their well drilled back row for Weedon to crash over and McKenzie to convert.

Full back Bell's next penalty just drifted wide and this was followed by Park's slackest period when they surrendered ball by losing three of their own line-outs in succession.

They were punished for this when Kersal scored another try through their lock forward Ford.

Winnington turned round 12-6 down and needing to put some good moves together. They enjoyed some early second half possession, but were unable to capitalise on either this or some loose play by the visitors.

Altrincham continued their habit of playing too close to the offside line and were duly punished by the excellent kicking of Park's captain Bell, who added two more penalties to bring the scores level.

At 12-12 the game had swung Winnington's way and they moved more confidently into the opposition half.

From a well won line-out on the left, Park's back division moved the ball rapidly across to Archer on the right. He still had plenty to do as the covering defence swept across, but he cleverly stepped inside and broke through a couple of tackles to ground the ball.

Bell's kick was inevitably successful and although Kersal had a late rally they failed to breach the determined Park defence.