South Lancs/Cheshire League
Division Two North
Oswestry Eagles 29, Marple 6
A HAT-TRICK of tries from Oswestry’s Ollie Wilford inspired the Eagles to a rampaging win over visiting Marple.
Oswestry dominated the game despite falling six points behind in the early stages,
only for Wilford to snatch the headlines by blitzing the Stockport side along with some huge goal-kicking from the ever-dependable boot of Andy Howell.
The win leaves Oswestry within five points of the Second Division summit with a game in hand over two of the three teams above them. They will expect to make it four wins in a row when relegation placed Ramsey fly over to Park Hall from the Isle of Man this Saturday.
Marple took the lead three minutes in when Oswestry were penalised for a late tackle, allowing the opposition fly-half to stroke the ball between the posts. The Eagles had difficulty finding their early rhythm and a number of unforced errors allowed Marple to relieve pressure inside their 22 before making their way up
the field.
Marple’s scrum-half took a snap dropgoal to put his side six points in front, but from then on the match was Oswestry’s as they worked the ball well through the phases to deliver several exciting passages of play.
Oswestry captain Howell kicked for position and his side once again laid siege
inside the Marple 22, with Nathan Parker, Keaveney and Wilford forcing their way to
within two metres of the try line. But the visitors cleared before another Marple drop goal attempt, this time falling short however with Sam Martin collecting the ball.
He outpaced the cover and powered through several tackles before linking up with Sam Wright and Dan Samuels.
That passage was followed up by good work from Guy Howell and Andrew Smith,
allowing giant lock, Wilford, to crash over for the game’s first try.
Howell converted to give Oswestry a one-point lead at the interval, and they soon added three more when Howell defied the murky conditions to send over a monstrous 40-yard penalty early in the second-half.
With the Eagles now in full flight Graham Fox took clean ball from the line-out with
Andrew Smith charging deep into Marple territory. The ball eventually found its
way through to Wilford who burrowed his way through several defenders to take the score to 15-6.
Marple were being stretched all over the pitch and Thomas Thorpe broke free before feeding to Wilford who sealed his hat-trick with Howell adding the extra points. The visitors now tried to run everything, but covering tackles from Rob Massam and Tyler Morris ensured they were unable to add to their tally before surging runs from, Ivor Hughes and Chris Roberts culminated in a converted bonus point try for scrumhalf, Jim Dilkes.