Haresfinch 9 Roose Pioneers 10 FINCH were left to reflect on what might have been as they missed out on a place in the last 16 of the North West Counties Challenge Cup by the narrowest of margins against Division Two title contenders Roose.

That the game was played at all was a credit to the host club - and in particular the small band of volunteers who spent the best part of Saturday morning clearing away the surface water accumulated due to the almost incessant rain of the past week or so.

The match itself was a credit to both sides who struggled manfully to play open rugby, despite the gale-force winds and sweeping rain and hail storms. And Finch can count themselves desperately unlucky to go down after dominating the second half only to fall to a sucker punch.

Roose started strongly, obviously confident that they could sweep aside opponents from a division lower down the rung. The visitors' big pack relished the heavy conditions and it was no surprise when they took the lead with an unconverted try.

As the game wore on, though, Finch began to realise that they were more than a match for the Barrow outfit and they deservedly drew level just before half-time when stand-off Jeff Brown powered over for his first try of the season. The second half saw Finch pinning the Cumbrians inside their own half for long spells and they should have had more to show for their efforts than a well-taken touchdown by the hard-working Lee Simmons. At least another two clear-cut scoring chances went begging as the home side's enterprising rugby repeatedly opened up the Roose defence.

Having weathered the storm - in more ways than one - Pioneers replied with a penalty goal, before a Billy Platt drop goal edged Finch 9-6 ahead with 10 minutes to go.

But just when it seemed the homesters would hang on for a well-deserved triumph, disaster struck. A knock-on on the Finch 25 gave Roose head and feed and from the resulting scrum the visitors' scrum-half ghosted through to score the match-winning try.

In a great all-round team effort Finch were particularly well-served by full-back Dave Swift, centres John Jackson and Lee Jones, half-backs Jeff Brown and Lee Simmons, hooker Stuart Simmons, prop Karl Farrall and second-row Neil Lomas.

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