COMBINED LANCS 58-6 METROPOLITAN POLICE

Combined Lancs bounced back from a narrow defeat against against West Yorkshire to crush a weak Metropolitan Police team.
Veteran utility player Adam Fogarty along with Ste Brown and Darrell Rotherham interlinked well to subdue any challenge the Met side were to muster. Fogarty opened the scoring with a fine piece of backing up from just inside the Met’s 20 metre line to scamper in unopposed to give C/L a 4-0 lead. With Johnny Leicester and Jim Roxby forever to the fore, and no matter what the Met squad tried to offer C/L always hit back several times with counter attack after counter. Great running from debutant Tom Bailey set the stall up for Chris (DUTCHY) Holland to burst through a weakened defence to score and set the lead at 8-0 with only 10 minutes gone. All credit to the Met with a never say die attitude as they continued to try and break the C/L line but to no avail. There was no way through for the MET with the tireless Paul Carmody and Phil Irish stood firm to repel any challenge put before them. Further tries from Adams, Bailey and Green and 3 Fogarty conversions gave the C/L a comfortable half-time 26-0 cushion. Injuries then forced C/L to shuffle the pack and bring prop Stu Hague into the fray who outshone several youngsters with his hard graft and pummelling drives, this from a player well into his twilight years but willing to withstand the test of time and pull on a shirt to aid the cause.
The 2nd half brought about some entertaining rugby league with several exchanges of brute force from both sides, the Met tried in vain to prevent a cricket score being racked up but were helpless to stop Lampkin, Love and Clemie combining for Fogarty to nip in for try number 2 and aid Adam Wilkinson to rush onto a free ball to score wide out putting the score at 36-0.
Chris Suffolk, Jon Middleton and Alex Clemie moved the ball out well to give the inform Ste Brown a quick fire hat-trick before a minor lapse in play late in the game allowed the Met a consolation try and round the score off at 58-6.
Overall an excellent performance putting C/L back on track to reclaim the national trophy from West Yorkshire’s grip.

TEAM(1)Alex Clemie 2)Phil Green 3)Daniel Adams 4)Johnny Leicester 5)Jon Middleton 6)Ste Brown(capt) 7)Darrell Rotherham 8)Phlip Irish 9)Adam Fogarty 10)Chris Suffolk 11)Chris Holland
12)Paul Carmody 13)Tom Bailey
subs all used:-
14)Stu Hague 15)Adam Wilkinson 16)Russ Lampkin 17)Jim Roxby 18)James Love

Tries:- Brown 3 Fogarty 2 Adams 2 Wilkinson, Holland, Green, Bailey
Goals:- Fogarty 6 Adams 1

NEXT GAMES
Thursday 15th July 2010 West Yorkshire Police (Home fixture)
Thursday 19th August 2010 Metropolitan Police (Away fixture)

Report by Damieon Pickles