Helsby 5Ellesmere Port 36
PORT kept the pressure on the South Lancs/Cheshire Division Three top two on Saturday with a comfortable victory over their struggling neighbours.
The third-placed Whitby Sports & Social Club outfit have now won their last six league outings – form that means Crewe & Nantwich and unbeaten leaders Prenton cannot afford to rest on their laurels.
Port dominated from the off and after Joe Joinson went close, back-row James Shinton broke the deadlock with a well-worked effort.
Having scored so early on, the visitors became over-confident and they were punished when Helsby levelled the contest with an unconverted try of their own.
But that served to spring Port back into life and, led by their rampaging forwards, they went back in front when No 8 James Callaghan and Shinton combined for full-back Ant Jones to cross the whitewash.
Fly-half Chris Carbutt added the extras and repeated the trick after centre Pete Doyle touched down.
Leading 19-5 and with the wind behind them, the promotion pushers started the second half where they left off in the first as Doyle sliced open the Helsby defence to go over.
Callaghan completed the try-scoring after he made another excellent break, but it was Carbutt who had the final say as he slotted over a penalty to complement his four conversions.
Hooker Craig Jones was man of the match for Port, who head to Buxton on Saturday.
Ellesmere Port juniors got the better of their Wirral counterparts on Sunday. There were wins for Port’s Under 8s (60-55), U10s (30-20), U11s (30-20) and U12s (70-0), although their U7s (60-15) and U9s (35-5) went down to defeat
