Haresfinch 16, Heysham Atoms 16

A DRAW was a fair result for this hard-fought encounter as Finch underlined their improvement by turning around a 50-12 defeat at Heysham earlier in the season.

The visitors though must have thought they were on for a repeat when they raced into a 12-nil lead with two converted tries.

Finch hit back when a good move involving player/coach Billy Platt ended with loose-forward Tony Seabrook powering through from 40 yards out to touch down. Stand-off Dave Meadows added the goal to make it 6-12 at the interval.

A well-taken, unconverted try by hard-working centre John Jackson early in the second half put Finch right back in contention at 10-12.

But Heysham looked to have done enough to seal victory when a set move from a scrum 10 yards out gave their right winger a stroll in to touch down.

Finch though refused to lie down and the ever-alert Jackson scooted in following another powerful break by Seabrook, giving Meadows an easy conversion to tie the scores.

Seabrook was adjudged the Franco's Wholesale Ltd. man-of-the-match for Finch, with Jackson, industrious scrum-half Shaun Kilgannon, young prop Robbie Broughton and second-row Ian Derbyshire also worthy of special mention.

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