Got my predictions right!

Bolton Mets 14-24 Hindley A
Chester Gladiators 32-30 Ashton Bears A
Culcheth Eagles 28-8 Little Hulton Reds
Fitton Hill & Hathershaw 16-22 Bury Broncos
Portico Vine 18-30 Wigan Bulldogs

Scrappy win from us today, were awful for long spells, turned over loads of ball and gave away penalty after penalty but ground it out. Fitton were well drilled in attack and had 2 very strong runners who made life difficult, especially in the 1st half. Most of the game was 12-10 to us but when we finally started to play we got on top and eventually the tries came with yours truly somehow getting 2 tries in the last 10 to seal the game!


Fitton got a late one following several sets on our line and despite some fearsome goal-line defence.
Pleased with the win but too many errors, lots of improvement to come.

There's no thread for the Entry Division, but our 'A' team had their first EVER run-out today against Westhoughton and won 14 - 4



Buzzing for them and for the club. An 'A' squad of 21 with 6 lads on debut, a couple from RU, a few coming back after time away and several fringe and slightly older players. Some great defence, no backward steps and confident going forward. Probably the highest rate of completion we've ever had! Only 4 First-Teamers in the squad and none of them played 80.

Westhoughton weren't at their best but always a tough side to beat. We've come a massive way since scraping half a dozen lads together training in near darkness and thick winter mud over the last few years. A few more lads and we might be fielding 2 teams every week. The 'A's will face much sterner tests but chuffed to death today.

Was strange to play a team and hear THEM complaining, "loads of first-teamers playing..."

I'll start off predictions this week. Crosfields looking forward to a game after a couple of weeks off

Bolton Mets v Bury Broncos
Culcheth Eagles v Woolston Rovers A
Hindley A v Ashton Bears A
Little Hulton Reds v Fitton Hill
Portico Vine v Crosfields
Wigan Bulldogs v Chester Gladiators

Looks like its that time of the week then.
Looking forward to the game this weekend after a nice bank holiday weekend off.

Bolton Mets v Bury Broncos. Broncos for the win
Culcheth Eagles v Woolston Rovers A. I think Culcheth may just edge woolston at home.
Hindley A v Ashton Bears A. Hindley for the win
Little Hulton Reds v Fitton Hill. LH reds for the win of course
Portico Vine v Crosfields. Portico still looking for there first win of the season. Think they will get it at home on sat.
Wigan Bulldogs v Chester Gladiators. Bulldogs for the win

My predictions for week 3

Bolton v Bury
Culcheth v Woolston
Hindley A v Ashton Bears A
LH Red v Fitton Hill
Portico Vine v Crosfields
Wigan Bulldogs v Chester Gladiators

Bolton Mets 10-26 Bury Broncos



Pleased with another win against local rivals though we made hard work of it again. Bolton are a forwards-dominated team with a big pack and we got sucked into a forwards battle for too long. Their hooker was a great runner and couple of strong forwards troubled us, but for the most I felt we took everything they could throw and handled it fairly well.

Bolton scored first, we went ahead 10-4 before sloppy defence allowed them to draw level just after half time. Once we finally started to move the ball wide we began to dominate and following a nice chip & gather to take us ahead, some great work from our forwards put me away out wide to snatch another try (top try scorer at the moment somehow!), and the win was sealed on 80 with a devastating run out wide by a debutant winger.

4 more lads on debut today, the squad is shaping up well. Bolton are always a tough team and today was no exception, enjoyed the game and chuffed to be 2nd in the table even though there's a long, long way to go in the season.

Didn't attend Crosfields match as was back at the club entertaining Warrington Wizards 'A' 's first outing

Defences on top I see at 50-42. Coaches please with the win, unbeaten so far and looking forward to going to Chester next week.. bit of an unknown quantity for us

Might as well start it off

enjoy the games this weekend

Ashton Bears A vs Portico Vine
Bury Broncos vs Culcheth Eagles
Chester Gladiators vs Crosfields
Fitton Hill Bulldogs vs Bolton Mets
Little Hulton Reds vs Wigan Bulldogs
Woolston Rovers A vs Hindley A

Ashton Bears A vs Portico Vine - not played either
Bury Broncos vs Culcheth Eagles - Broncos for the win!
Chester Gladiators vs Crosfields - Crosfields tough to beat
Fitton Hill Bulldogs vs Bolton Mets - Bolton were a big set, but I thought Fitton were bigger!
Little Hulton Reds vs Wigan Bulldogs - not played either yet, I'll go with LHR
Woolston Rovers A vs Hindley A - hard to say but Hindley have started better

We've got a massive 20 lads missing this weekend, including 10 First-Teamers, but still trying to field 2 teams! Injury/work crisis!

I don't think you are the only ones to struggle with numbers...and it's early days yet. Think it's going to be a long hard season for some clubs.

Well we fielded 2 sides but both lost...had a few let us down for the Seconds, think they lost about 36-14, and then the Firsts took the field...

Bury 6-14 Culcheth

Completely refereed out of this game. Culcheth came to play hard and dirty - fair enough, some teams do that - but the ref turned up with a proper grudge after getting some grief last year. Took no end of high shots, elbows & knees and were offered no protection at all, yet the slightest infringement by us was a penalty. We ended up having 2 sin-binned and 3 sent off. First was a stupid brain-fart as a one lad tripped someone, the others were following a dirty late elbow which caused a couple of normally very controlled players to explode - frankly they'd had enough. Not happy with discipline but if the ref won't protect players you can't really blame them for eventually losing it.

Culcheth squeezed in a couple of tries while we were down on numbers and it was hard to get back into it from then, but we got a late try. On a level playing field I'm confident we would have won, we made better yards and our defence was on top but some poor decisions and that absolute muppet with the whistle killed the game. Oh, and we had 3 legitimate tries chalked off - 2 of them clearly grounded. Fuming.

The game was also held up for 30 minutes with a neck/spinal injury that required 2 ambulances (the first didn't have a spinal board!) - hope the lad's ok.

We went down 30-24 at home to Crosfields. Pretty even game and think we should have held on. We were 20-16 up before Crosfields levelled and then they scored twice in the last seven minutes before we got a consolation at the death.

They are a big and physical outfit but a good set of lads and it was a decent game. Crosfields had a lad sinbinned for a professional foul and we didn't take advantage - think that was crucial point in the game.

Scoring points isn't a problem for us but we need to tighten up defensively and get a bit smarter. Confident the wins will come if we can do that.

Anyone know the Hindley A vs Portico Vine result from yesterday? Not on the NWML webesite.

Its been very quiet on here for the last few weeks.
How do ppl think the league is turning out.
Any shocks at what teams are doing well or not so well.
Another hard set of games this weekens hopefully no more 24-0

Enjoying it so far, good to see the overwhelmingly majority of games have been played and, as you say, hopefully last week's 24-0 results won't become too common.

Culcheth obviously look the team to beat - not see Little Hulton yet and Woolston were a good young side.

Most games have been competitive and its shaping up well.

Enjoying it here also! Very topsy-turvy, one week we've got 40+ lads and are fielding 2 sides, the next week we're struggling for 17. All down to work, injuries and holidays.

Culcheth topping the table, but I've personally felt other sides were stronger. Certainly a competitive division, I think Ashton's loss at Little Hulton is the only blow-out score so far? We let ourselves down badly with 2 very poor performances (I didn't play in either

), but turned it around well with a good win at Crosfields last week.

Gutted about the weekend - we had a cracking double-header lined up: Broncos A vs Hindley B followed by Broncos 1sts vs Hindley A. Hindley B pulled out on Thursday and we couldn't find a replacement, and then our pitch was waterlogged (literally had ducks on it when I went to check!) and Hindley's were also underwater so we couldn't switch. Managed to get about 20 lads down for a run out and took it out on each other instead.



Our division seems pretty good for fixture completion, but the summer leagues were always going to take take to settle in.

And as soon as I say that Ashton A have conceded, can't raise a side.



Think we're looking for another opponent but it's getting a bit late...

Ashton A have been playing summer/winter rugby now for over 2 years so its perhaps not surprising the lads are tired & probably a bit bored with the constant train/play scenario. This weekend there's 16 lads not available leaving 10 confirmed, so not much choice really. Seems to be a similar story around other clubs as well. Due to a freak run of injuries in the 1st team, 5 key players have been in that team since October and although replacing them has been a challenge, we're getting there. Numbers are actually very healthy just coincidental everything's seemed to fall on one weekend. We wont be playing next week either because we've got a massive club fund raising day and the flexibility in rearranging fixtures hasn't been as forthcoming as we were led to believe & thought we'd agreed before the season started. We'll be more than ready for 14th, we've got Fitton Hill I think.
As a club we took the view that this 1st summer season would be a real mess through the leagues and so its proving to be but it'll hopefully settle down next year. For us we'll have a very good group of 18's moving up with another good set following on from them. Add to that we've just got a massive grant for renovation work on the clubhouse & changing rooms and another one hopefully not far away for pitch remediation, floodlight pitch and training area, we're not too despondent about missing a few A team fixtures this early in the piece.

Not having a go mate, completely understand and it was good of you to let us know early - at the end of the day we're all amateurs and injuries, work, holidays, etc can't be helped and all take priority.

We were in a similar place last summer - a few years non-stop winter & summer had taken its toll and we were more than ready for a rest, having the winter off was a god-send!

Looks like we've a game up at Burnley & Pendle now, but from having 40-odd lads available last week we're down to probably 18. Half of our pack seem to work one-on, one-off Saturdays in sync with each other, and it doesn't help that several are going to the Stone Roses gig at Heaton Park!!

Looks like alot of teams in the summer league are having the same problems. Always 10 times harder for a 2nd team to put the same side out everyweek, but i think even most 1st team are having the same probs and this is why some 2nds team are struggling.
Was always going to be hard in the first summer season, also heard a few summer teams are pulling out and going to winter not sure if its true or who the teams are.
We have been lucky this season at LH we have had good numbers well apart from the culcheth game at the start of the season, we have had a srtong team week in and week out but the last 2 weeks have been hard for us, lost 4 players out to the Hindley game with bad injuries, we had a mix team last week against ashton but a massive game and test for us tomorrow at woolston. Cant wait

Cronus: Didn't take it as having a go mate, I know its frustrating when teams concede so wanted to give you and everyone the full picture.

Should be a decent game up at Pendle, we always enjoyed going up there in the old summer league. Brian Foleys been doing a great job up there and really had his lads well drilled last season, good set of lads to if he's kept them together.

LHreds: We were gutted we couldn't bring a stronger team to you last week because your another team we've always had good games with. We played you in our very 1st ever summer game a couple of years ago and the lads always remember that.

There's a few summer teams struggling and some big names too. Golborne have sadly gone back to winter and there's rumours theres another premier league team giving it strong consideration.

FWIW I think Woolston will win this league again, good team. But keep an eye on Portico, now their new signings have settled they'll be difficult to beat.

Well our A team travelled up to Burnley & Pendle for a hastily arranged fixture and won 26-22 (I think). With the late change we ended up with a healthy mix of 1sts and A players. I've got an ear infection so didn't play and spent the day shopping & in the garden. Yay.

Seems we were never in real risk of losing and went ahead about 26-10 before letting B & P back in at the death with a few late tries. Apparently the ref told our club sec he stopped penalising them after about an hour to make it more interesting!!

Always good to get a win.

So how's everyone looking for tomorrow with the great British summer piddling down?

Our game vs Wigan Bulldogs has apparently been switched to Wigan. Anyone know how pitches are bearing up over that way?

Crosfields 'A' v Culcheth Eagles due to be played tonight will be off, Waterlogged Pitches

Wigan Bulldogs 14 - 22 Bury Broncos
(game switched to Wigan)

First time we've beaten the Bulldogs since we both played our first league games in 2008. Went with a decent squad and were probably the better team throughout. Some stupid decisions nearly cost us very dearly - players flying out the line, trying to go wide & getting put into touch, forcing the pass - but we held on. Our defence was awesome at times and we were never behind on the scoreboard, just need to be more intelligent with the ball in hand.

As always, a close game against the Bulldogs, played in good spirit. Their 9 and 7 were dangerous off the scoot.