Heath march on in National

HEATH finally put paid to West Bowling at the second time of asking in this replayed League Express BARLA National Cup second round tie.

Last week the visitors had raced into an early 16-point lead and they again opened the scoring with an unconverted try in the first 10 minutes, centre Martin Tordoff latching on to a Glenn Barraclough pass to go over in the corner.

Shortly afterwards, West Bowling extended their lead with a Dean Garside drop goal and only a fine defensive performance from the Thatto pack limited them to these points in the first half-hour, with Horton, Waterworth, Hatton and Gary Forber all putting in big hits.

On the half-hour mark though the tide began to turn as Heath enjoyed a purple patch. Firstly, Barry Ashall floated out a long pass to Mike Woods, cutting out three defenders, to send the winger in at the corner. Wayne Jackman added a fine touchline conversion to put Heath into the lead despite a swirling wind.

Four minutes later the frustrations of the West Bowling defence got the better of them and an indiscreet comment resulted in a Heath penalty that Jackman duly converted. Then, with only seconds left on the clock, Woods collected a spilled ball five yards from his own line and used his pace to break open the Bradford side's defence before putting centre Anthony Marsh in the clear with a neat inside pass. Jackman added his third goal of the game and Heath went into the break leading 14-5.

West Bowling again opened brightly in the second half and Tordoff pounced on a dropped ball to claim his second try seven minutes after the re-start. Garside converted from the touchline and Heath braced themselves for the onslaught.

However, that proved to be the last score of the game as Heath repelled attack after attack as West Bowling threw everything at them. Every single member of the home side defended heroically as the game developed into a battle that could have gone either way.

Eventually, the visitors became frustrated in their efforts and a series of penalties for talking back and questioning decisions resulted in the sin-binning of replacement second-rower Jason Page. This took the pressure off the Heath and allowed them to run down the clock with the skills of Harris, Honey and Mitchell finally earning the spoils and a trip to face Woolston in the next round in a fortnight's time.

Marple men-of-the-match for Heath were Darren Mitchell (forwards) and Darren Harris (backs).