Chester RUFC halted a run of three straight home defeats, producing their most complete and convincing performance of the season so far to beat Leicester Lions 26-7.
The game was played out on a greasy Hare Lane pitch but fortunately the rain stayed away for the 80 minutes, although a strong and blustery wind impacted on proceedings.
Chester began strongly with the wind behind them and had largely settled the result inside 20 the first quarter as Leicester Lions struggled to come to terms with the conditions.
The home pack established a degree of dominance early and opened the scoring with a Mike Craven try from a driven lineout on 10 minutes.
Three minutes later a forceful drive from Guy Ford followed by a neat offload created a second score for Craven before Chester captain Ford touched down himself to open up a 19-0 lead that was always going to be difficult to overhaul.
The Lions did then start to assert themselves on the back of a powerful scrum and Chester began to concede penalties as the visitors built some strong territorial positions.
But the Leicester attack could not find a gap in the home defence and the scoreboard remained unchanged until the end of the first-half.
Chester put the game out of the Lions reach on 46 minutes with a converted bonus point as Craven crossed to complete his hat-trick following strong drives from Ford and Gavin Woods. Callum Bennett’s conversion made the score an unassailable 26-0.
For all their strength in the carry, Leicester’s attack continued to lack serious penetration and their best chance of scoring rested with either errors from the hosts or from the power of their scrum. However, the Chester defence held firm to make for a frustrating afternoon for the visitors.
With time running out, the Lions did at last get a score. Despite overthrowing an attacking lineout, the visitors retrieved the ball and were awarded a penalty. Choosing to take the scrum, the ball squirted out for Marco Dallavalle to react fastest and cross to make the final score 26-7.
Chester climbed to sixth in the National League Two North table following the win and visit third-bottom Huddersfield on Saturday (2pm).
Chester youngsters take part in national tournament
He missed out on the chance of walking out at Twickenham, but Ewan Cowdell from Chester under-12s still loved every minute of his Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup experience.
The competition is the first national grassroots tournament officiated by Premiership Rugby and run in conjunction with its clubs. It was Worcester Warriors’ turn to host on Saturday with Chester among the mini rugby teams who met in the shadow of Sixways Stadium.
And while Cowdell was not able to lift the trophy for a spot at rugby HQ, the 11-year-old remained proud of his side.
"I like festivals like this because you get to hang out with your friends and have a good time," said The King’s School pupil.
"Rugby calms me down after school and lets me socialise with all of my friends. I like to tackle the most, but I also love passing the ball quickly and scoring lots of tries.
"The ball was a bit slippery on the day so we had to concentrate a lot more and just focus and make sure that we catch the ball and made no mistakes.
"So we improved our handling today which is a really important skill. We dropped it a few times but we got used to it and started to make sure we caught the ball. I have got a lot of my friends here at Chester and it is a really good environment to learn and play."
The under-12s were not the only Chester side in action with the under 11s beating Droitwich in the final of the plate competition.
Land Rover is a proud supporter of grassroots rugby and has been a partner of the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup for nearly a decade. Rugby World Cup 2015 may be over but Land Rover’s ‘We Deal In Real’ campaign continues to champion grassroots rugby through Premiership Rugby and the Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup.
Oliers keep up eye-catching form
Following last week’s hugely impressive victory in the Cheshire Plate semi-finals, Ellesmere Port continued their rich vein of form with an excellent 24-5 success at Oldershaw in Merseyside West.
The Oilers out-scored the hosts four tries to one with Oldershaw gaining a consolation right on the final whistle. Jim Shinton, Robert Finlay, Anthony Jones and Ross Grimes scored for Ellesmere Port.
It was a performance that earned the team huge credit from the Ellesmere Port coaching staff and director of rugby Steve Dorrington showered his players with praise following the game.
He said: "The front row were excellent. Niall Grant was powerful in the loose, menacing in the tight, Joe White orchestrated the lineout well and cleaned out well, and James Callaghan scrummaged like a Trojan and carried the ball for miles.
"Behind them Joe Partington tackled everything before him and Anthony Griffiths was a thorn in the Oldershaw side, operating as a wrecking ball in the ruck.
"Our back three of Ben Payne, Sam Bethell and Jim Shinton did a great job. Ben had his best game to date for the club, Sam has a tremendous engine and Jim gave a masterclass at number eight.
"In the halves, livewire Ollie Brown was superb and Will Titherington is a magician with the ball and a star in the making.
"The centre pairing of Billy Rennox and Ross Grimes are a fantastic partnership with immense workrate.
"The back three were superb too. Robert Finlay showed pace and poise, Joe Joinson has the heart of a lion and Anthony Jones gave a perfect display at full-back.
"Josh Edge produced some fantastic defence as a replacement and it was a fantastic team performance overall."
Swans celebrate fine win and Helsby move into top spot
Christleton bounced back to winning ways with a fine 34-11 defeat of high-flying Bowdon 2nds. Following back-to-back losses, the Swans ran in four tries to record their sixth win of the season. Gerard Murphy, Matt Spencer, Daniel Maiden and Jim Taylor crossed the whitewash with the latter booting four conversions and two penalties.
Helsby moved into top spot in Division Five South courtesy of a high-scoring win at home to Winnington Park 4ths with the hosts having to dig deep to overcome the visitors 43-32.
