Haresfinch 11 Rylands 14 FINCH were left to rue a couple of missed chances as they narrowly failed to topple high-flying Rylands in a closely-contested encounter.

The home side started well with a penalty and a drop goal by stand-off Dave Meadows and had the better of the early exchanges with forwards John Woods and Karl Farrall prominent.

But Rylands hit back with a penalty and a converted try to lead 8-3 before winger Kel Gearing scored from a pass by Chris Gearing to narrow the deficit to a single point at the break.

Centre Chris Mason and winger Wayne Sumner were heavily involved as Finch made a bright start to the second period, but Rylands increased their lead against the run of play with an unconverted touchdown.

Again Finch hit back when non-stop scrum-half Shaun Kilgannon scored from a Meadows chip through, but the visitors had the final say with a late penalty completing the scoring.

Meadows was the Franco's Wholesale Ltd. man-of-the-match just ahead of Woods and Kilgannon.

Haresfinch

under 16s 6

Leigh Miners

Rangers 32

Finch's young guns were shot down by a well-organised Leigh side in this Lancashire Cup tie.

Uncharacteristic defensive lapses proved costly for an unsually ragged-looking home side who found themselves 22-0 adrift at the interval.

Finch had much more of the play in the second half but couldn't turn pressure into points and all they had to show for their efforts was a try by joint man-of-the-match prop Tim Hodgson, converted by winger Ste Anders.

The Leigh defence though weathered the storm and they returned to the attack to add a further 10 points.

In a spirited performance Finch were also well served by joint man-of-the-match Roy Tickle, top tackler Ant Parr, Paul Martlew, Carl Riley, Lee Critchley and Chris Highcock.

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