Thatto Heath 22 Halton Simms Cross 16 THATTO Heath opened their season with a hard earned win.

They sealed their win with a late try from full-back Wayne Jackman after a mistake by the Simms Cross stand-off, who dropped the ball near his own line and Jackman scooped up the loose ball and strolled over to score near the post.

Thatto Heath started well and on eight minutes centre Gary Welsby was held up over the line.

From the resulting scrum, Heath spread the ball one way then the other and stand-off Chris Honey was on hand to score in the corner after good work by winger Mike Woods.

It took Heath a further 10 minutes to stretch their lead when opposite winger Neil Prescott showed electric pace to score out wide after prop Dave Sheridan set him free. Wayne Jackman converted.

On the half hour mark when a scuffle in a tackle lead to several players getting involved. The outcome was the dismissal of Thatto Heath captain Paul Ashurst and a 10-minute spell in the sin bin for Welsby and Simms Cross full-back Mike Keehnan. On the stroke of half time Simmies looked to have scored, but winger Conner lost the ball over the line and five tackles later Heath second row forward Carl Cooper burst through to send the supporting Mike Woods clear to score under the post. Jackman again converted.

Simms Cross came back well in the second half and scrum-half Malvey scored after Heath's defence went to sleep. They replied with a penalty by Jackman, but again Simms Cross came back. This time hooker Palmer crashed over near the post and full-back Mike Keehnan tagged on the extras to make the score 18-10. At this stage Simmies looked strong and Heath's 12 men started to struggle, until Jackman snatched a try with only 10 minutes left. However, Simms Cross l had the last word with winger Conner scoring in the corner. Keehnan landed a superb conversion. Neil Prescott was named man of the match.

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