Moor travelled the short distance to Broughton Park last Saturday in the knowledge that with recent games between the sides having been close, they might be able to come away with something from the game. In the event, honours were shared, with Moor having the better of the first half and Park claiming the second.
The home side kicked off and almost immediately earned a penalty, which was kicked to touch. Winning the lineout, they then recycled the ball a number of times and took play to within ten metres of the Moor line, where they then won another penalty, and took the lead with a straightforward kick for goal, which, as it turned out, was the only time in the match that they were ahead. Following the restart, Moor then lost flanker Tom Yeomans with an injury, requiring a reshuffle of their pack and play was then mostly confined to the mid-field. On the quarter-of-an-hour mark, in their first real incursion over the Park 10-metre line, scrum-half Mike Ingham put in a delicate chip over the advancing defence, allowing right-winger Sam Firth to run on, win the aerial battle for the ball and crash over in the corner for an unconverted try and open Moor’s account. Moor came straight back from the restart and their forwards set up a number of drives, before releasing the ball along the three-quarter line, for Firth to again make ground and when halted, flanker Archie Ward was on hand to take the final pass and touch down, followed by a conversion. Moor continued to take the game to Park and a few minutes after their last score, kicked a penalty, to go further into the lead. Park then put in a long restart kick which ended up on Moor's 22, where the visitors were penalised, enabling the hosts to kick to touch. The resulting lineout was won by Park, who then set up a driving maul, and although Moor were able to hold this up on the line, they were again penalised, ending in another kick to touch. This time, Park made no mistake and from the lineout, they drove over for a converted try. The final fifteen minutes of the half again found the contest limited to mid-field, but with a few minutes to go before half-time, Moor advanced deep into their opponent’s territory following interplay between their forwards and backs and took the ball up to the Park line, where it was held up, but again, the momentum was lost when they were penalised, allowing Park to clear their lines. Moor, however, were again on the attack and in attempting to stop them, the home side had a player sin-binned. The subsequent penalty was kicked to touch and on winning it, Moor set up a number of drives, before spinning the ball out one way and then the other, to finally score their third try, courtesy of Ingham, giving them a lead of 20-10 at the break.
Despite the comfortable cushion at the interval, Moor were then unable to capitalise on this in the second half, even though they had opportunities to do so and it was Park who had the better of this period. Within minutes, they had reduced the margin with a penalty goal and play was, in the main, restricted to the Moor half of the field for the next twenty minutes. Moor did have a chance of extending their lead on a couple of occasions during this time, but either dogged defence or their own mistakes kept them out. Midway through the half, Park again threatened from an attacking lineout, but Moor managed to hold them up twice over the line, before eventually the pressure told and Park squeezed in at the corner, followed by a fine conversion, to bring the scores level. Fortunately for Moor, the home side were not able to push on from this and the final fifteen minutes was one of thrust and counter-thrust by either side as each attempted to make a breakthrough and they both had real chances to score, but these were halted, usually, by self-inflicted errors and the game became rather scrappy. In injury time, Park did have a chance to take the victory with a penalty kick on the Moor 10-metre line, but this fell short and the game ended with a 20-20 draw – the first in their division this season – which in the end was perhaps a fair result, but Moor were left to rue what might have been as they were, yet again, unable to close a game down.

Aldwinans are the visitors to Green Lane this Saturday, k.o. 3:00 p.m.