BURLY rugby player Nick Hutchinson met the ultimate sporting challenge - the day he took on the missus!

Nick and his team mates at Clitheroe Rugby Club were invited to take part in a unisex hockey challenge against the women of Clitheroe and Hyndburn Ladies Hockey squad.

And Nick looked up to see wife Helen lining up for the opposition.

The couple, of Back Lane, Grindleton, left 10-week-old baby Eve in caring hands on the touchline as they limbered up for the big one.

"It's nice to be playing in the same match, because normally we never see each other on Saturday afternoons," said Helen.

Nick , 33, revealed he had been turning out for the Clitheroe rugby stalwarts for 15 years, right though courting days and beyond.

Now grandmum Dorothy Barker, of West Bradford, keeps little Eve happy in her baby buggy on the touchline as Helen and Nick indulge their sporting passions.

The match, dreamt up in a pub as a fun way of bridging the gap between winter seasons, featured a referee who admits he trains hunched over a frothing pint - Helen's dad, 58-year-old Campbell Barker.

At the end of an hour of beautiful moves and beastly tactics the sporting lads and lasses shook hands on a 1-1 draw. A late penalty taken by ladies' skipper Pauline Bush put the scores level.

Said organiser Pauline: "It was a bit of a drunken idea, really.

"We needed to play a match during the summer to hold the pitch for next season, and we thought this would be fun." Pauline, of Upbrooks, Clitheroe, who has been a member of the ladies' club for 12 years, skippered her girls against a team which included boyfriend Andy Morby.

The dubious derring-dos of unisex hockey prompted ref Campbell to joke: "I've always refereed soccer matches so I was just the man for the job."

And as he set off to chase play all round the all-weather venue at Hyndburn Sports Centre in Accrington he blew the whistle on rumours he had been in special training for the event. "I do all my work-outs in the Waddington Arms over a glass of something," he revealed.

Carolyn Taylor, who admits to a few more decades than her half-dozen schoolgirl teammates, said after the match: "The guys were strong and fit, they are men, after all. But we had the skills. We're hoping to repeat the match every year now, for charity. Both teams are hoping the fixture will attract new members to their fun fold.

And the men in particular are looking forward to a return match.

Officially, hockey may be a non-contact sport but it still proved an attractive fixture in more ways than one for the men of Clitheroe Rugby Club.

Said club chairman and goal-scorer Andrew Thornber: "This is the best turn-out by the lads for ages."