CHORLEY RUFC 7 COLNE AND NELSON RUFC 5

THE Black and Whites progressed to the second round of the Pilkington Shield competition with a narrow but deserved victory over Colne and Nelson.

The scoreline tells its tale! It was a ding dong struggle throughout and Chorley's hearts were in their mouths in the last ten minutes when the visitors had several kickable penalty opportunities.

But defeat would have been rough justice for Steve Goodman's side. They attacked with gusto and defended with a new-found defiance, tackling like tigers throughout.

The game opened with some free-flowing moves from both sides. Chorley's forwards won some good fast ball at ruck and maul, and half backs Riches and Leigh got their three-quarter line moving well.

After 25 minutes Leigh broke from a scrum just outside the visiting 22, rounded the opposing back row and passed to the impressive Neil Jones who crashed over for a beautiful try converted by Sean Riches.

It remained 7-0 to Chorley until 20 minutes into the second half when Colne got a try after intense pressure on the home line. Try as they might, the East Lancs side could not breach the Chorley line. Coach Peacock was a happy man afterwards. He said: Commitment and pride were there today."

This Saturday Chorley travel to Eccles for a league match.

CHORLEY RUFC 2ND XV 64 - VALE OF LUNE 4TH XV 5

CHORLEY'S second string romped to victory over a weak Vale of Lune XV. Ten tries made the final tally against just one for Lune.

There were scores for Rob Walsh (3), Derek Ward (2), Carlton Bramwell (1), Dave Maxwell (1), Phil Clark (1), Adrian Fuller (1), Gary Milner (1) with outside half Steve Ogden bagging seven conversions.

The Black and Whites led 17-0 at the break and the real avalanche of points came in the last 20 minutes when Vale collapsed. There were strong performances from newcomer Carlton Palmer and 'guest' number eight Mark Lavery.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.