West Park 26 Birkenhead Park 16 IT'S 'nip and tuck' at the top of league North West One after Park's hard fought victory over fourth place Birkenhead Park.

And it means Saturday's game at Caldy is a definite 'four pointer'.

Somewhat overpowered by the weighty Birkenhead pack West's struggled throughout and seldom got their back line into action, superior fitness telling in the end. Good work by Steve Bibby and Chris Pennington led to a penalty by Glen Fletcher quickly levelled as Gilbert found the mark from close in. Using their weight advantage to good effect Birkenhead drove West Park back only for a loose pass to be snapped up by Peter Osborne for an opportunist try converted by Fletcher. Birkenhead continued to dominate in the battle up front with Elliot Laughton putting in some big 'hits' to keep the home line intact.

A rolling maul close to the line saw Birkenhead Park number eight Dave Meehan driven over, Gilberts conversion levelling the scores at 10-10 at the interval and a kicking penalty on the resumption to give the visitors a 13-10 lead.

West Park's kicker Glen Fletcher missed two early attempts to level the scores but then landed a 45-yard effort awarded for foul play and regained the lead with another kick from wide out. The pendulum now began to swing in West Park's direction as fitness told in the final quarter Fletcher's fourth penalty increased the lead but it took a magnificent tackle by Osborne to stop a Birkenhead score but another Gilbert penalty kept the result in the balance at 19-16. The coup-de-grace was delivered by man of the match Elliot Laughton who took full advantage of some clever ball shielding by the forwards to force his way over, Fletcher converting to secure the league points from what proved to be a difficult match.

Other Saturday scores: Rhyl 1st XV 33 West Park 2nd 25, West Park 3rd 38 Wallasey 2nd 7.

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