Aspatria 16, Chester 6: CHESTER ended the season with a defeat on a wild afternoon in Cumbria - a far cry from their Cheshire Cup success a week earlier.

Aspatria, already relegated from North One, chose to play with the wind and rain at their backs and opened up a 16-point lead, which could have been more but for some heroic defending from the Chester three-quarter line.

It was not until the final minutes of the half that Chester threatened the Aspatria line when the Walker Smith and Way man-of-the-match Murray King converted a penalty.

At half-time, physio Ann Charlton worked tire-lessly to ensure that both Ben Foden and King could continue after both received heavy knocks. However she could do little with Steve Johnson who was slightly concussed and was replaced by Paul Jones-Evans.

The second period was played almost entirely in the Aspatria half, but Chester were unable to convert their territorial advantage into points. Time after time, either the referee spotted a minor infringement and penalised Chester or the final pass did not go to hand.

No matter how many times Chester pressed, the Aspatria defence seemed to have the answers and clung on to their lead. Chester did finally score three more points when the referee awarded a rare off-side penalty to Chester and King converted.

Chester Rugby Club's U13 team remain unbeaten since Christmas after a victorious tour to the Scottish Borders last weekend.

After the long journey, the team found its rhythm very quickly against Jed Thistle and Gavin Jones' devastating pace put him through to score.

The forwards continued to pressure their opponents, opening up plenty of space for the backs to run. The centre combination of Alex Gittings and Lee Boswell proved too powerful for the Scots, as each picked up tries. Two further tries from Dylan Phillips brought the half-time score to 25-5. After an Alex Gittings hat-trick in the second half and conversions from Luke Stevenson, the final score was 49-5.

On Sunday, the team travelled to Hawick who took the fight to Chester and opened the scoring with a fine try, which they converted.

The forwards worked hard in ruck, maul and set piece to gain territory and possession. Ed White, Danny Hellings, Chris Young and Michael Thorpe were outstanding in covering breakdowns and securing good quality ball.

The Hawick pack put up a good fight, but the power of the Chester forwards began to tell. Gavin Jones found a gap and was put through to score. Lee Boswell was brought down six inches from the line, but Sam Green scored minutes later.

Some outstanding rucking and mauling brought play close to the Hawick line for Dylan Philips to burst off the back of a maul for a well-deserved try.

Chester's try-scoring machine Alex Gittings scored four times in the match, with Lee Boswell crossing twice and Ed Camy crashing over from a five-metre lineout to make the final score 46-7.

Helsby U13s 45 Ellesmere Port U13s 12

HELSBY'S junior side turned in a fine performance in their home debut and only their second game.

An impressive first half saw them go into the break 31-12 in front and, in the second half, Ellesmere Port had no reply as Helsby added a further two tries to their tally.

Fly-half Tom Merrill led the way for the village side with a well-worked hat-trick of tries, and inside centre Dwayne Walker added two.

Hooker Ben Statham put in a tremendous performance in the forwards, taking several scrums against the head, and second-row Craig Wood-ward's tackling showed that his performance against Northwich last month was no one-off.

In the backs, both Tim White and Michael Rose gave good accounts of themselves before retiring injured and scrum-half Kiel Dunbar had a commanding game, feeding Chris Cook for a breakaway try.

Bradley Wakefield was Helsby's other try-scorer in the match - his short-range effort coming from a well-worked lineout. Dwayne Walker also had a good day with the boot, contributing five conversions out of seven. The Bell Development manof-the-match for Helsby was Tom Merrill.

Helsby made their debut in the Wirral U10s festival, where they played three matches - drawing two and losing one.

They were unfortunate not to chalk up a victory in their first-ever match, having two tries disallowed against the host side - the game ending in a 10-10 draw.

In their second match, they then led for a long time against Caldy before two late tries put them on the wrong end of a 15-10 scoreline.

Then in their final outing, they showed plenty of character to come from behind against a more experienced Chester side, to draw 5-5. Try-scorers for Helsby were Daniel Vaughan-Williams, Stephen Wiggins, Ryan Davies, Andrew Moss, Osian Roberts and Lewis Allen, and there was also good contributions from Liam Renton whose tackling was outstanding, Steven and Ben Ravenscroft for their play in the loose and scrum-half Luke Ryder.

Junior coaching will continue at Helsby until Sunday, May 2, which will be the last session before the summer break. The sessions take place on the Chester Road pitches (entry via the Brand Rex gatehouse) and children aged from six to 16 are welcome to take part. For more information, phone Chris Johnson on 01928 724180.