Lymm 33 Stockport 5 Report by Neil Allen
LYMM cruised to victory at a wet Beechwood as they defeated Stockport 33-5.
After a morning of constant rain, conditions were heavy with the odd pool of standing water littering the playing surface. Despite this the
game was pronounced on and both teams, swelled by a large crowd courtesy of the past players luncheon, sought to put on a show.
The ambition of the teams was probably out of kilter with the wet conditions, as ball retention proved difficult and both sides struggled to keep hold of the slippery ball. Lymm settled down the quickest and used the centre pairing of Callum Harris and the makeshift Tom Baker to crash the ball up the middle. Both were very effective and it was from one such move that Harris, picking a great line, burst through the middle to off-load to Joe Knowles who crashed over under the posts. The conversion was added by Cormac Nolan to make the score 7-0 after 10 minutes.
Stockport then began to play the conditions better and made a number of good forward surges. One such move ended with the left winger going over in the corner for a well deserved try, 7-5. Stockport now began to look the more likely, as Lymm started to drop off a few first time tackles.
Calm was needed and who better than Adam Bray, who was superb all day, to bring things back to order. Spotting a gap from the back of a scrum, Bray raced over giving Nolan a simple conversion to make the score 14-5 at half time.
The touchline chat at half-time was that the game was still not over. The second half started however, with Lymm looking more controlled and patient. Any time Stockport made progress into the Lymm half they were pegged back by some superb kicking out of hand from Tom Baker, Cormac Nolan and Tom Shard. Not a phrase often used in a Lymm report! On ten minutes Shard put in a great box kick which Stockport didn’t deal with too well. Lymm pounced and the ball was recycled between forwards and backs, with Tom Bray eventually crossing the line. Nolan converted to make it 21-5.
Lymm were now dominating and playing with great precision in the conditions. A special mention for former captain Sion Williams, who then entered the fray to make his first appearance of the campaign, having retired at the end of last season? A scrum on the Stockport 22 metre line saw Tom Bray add a second try to his tally, ghosting over from stand-off unopposed. The game was now up, bonus point secured and Stockport looked beaten. Lymm’s direct play in the opening 20 minutes had killed the game and the remaining half turned scrappy as fatigue kicked in from the heavy conditions.
There was just one more highlight, as Olli Higginson went over after some close quarter work from the forwards to make the final score 33-5.
A good second half performance gave Lymm a well deserved win and it demonstrates just how far Lymm have progressed this season to beat a Stockport side, whom for the past few seasons have played at level 4, in the league above Lymm.
The talk in the bar afterwards and the challenge for Adam Fletcher and the team was just how high can Lymm finish in the league this season? After Saturday’s other scores and the remaining fixtures, starting with Burnage at home next week, third spot is still very much within reach……! Come on Lymm.
Team: 1) Jordan Widdrington, 2) Ross White, 3) Dan Horton, 4) Zak Lythgoe,
5) Aaron Rasheed, 6) Jack Harper, 7) Adam Bray (C), 8) Olli Higginson, 9) Tom Shard, 10) Tom Bray, 11) Cormac Nolan, 12) Tom Baker, 13) Callum Harris,
14) Chris Owens, 15) Joe Knowles, 16) Mike Auden, 17) Will Baldwin, 18) Sion Williams.
