1st XV sink to defeat against basement side Helsby

Helsby 16 – 13 Holmes Chapel

Holmes Chapel 1st XV slipped to a disappointing defeat in South Lancs / Cheshire 3 last Saturday – their first since the opening game of the season – against a Helsby side who were worthy winners on the day. Following the magnificent win at Parkonians the previous weekend, Mike Cottam’s men travelled in high spirits but a mixture of basic errors and poor discipline, not to mention an inspired defensive performance from the hosts, left them with only a losing bonus point from the afternoon.

It all started well for Chapel with Angus Morrison scoring a try after a blindside break from Cottam to put them into a 5-0 lead. However, for the remainder of the first half they couldn’t add to their points tally and after Helsby had taken the lead with 2 penalties, the home side then stretched their lead to 11 points with 2 unconverted tries in quick succession. The second half did see an improvement from the visitors and they brought themselves back into the game with a Stu Butters penalty and a try from Dave Price. The final minutes saw Chapel enjoy plenty of possession and territory but handling errors, poor decision making, and strong defence kept the score at 16-13 to the home side.

Chapel will have to wait some time to put this behind them as the next league match is now after Christmas. Hopefully this will be a wake-up call that there are no easy matches in this league and there will be no more room for slip-ups if they wish to challenge for promotion. Congratulations to Helsby who deserved the victory and will doubtless start climbing the league table themselves if they continue to perform as they did at the weekend.

The 2nd XV also lost out against Heaton Moor but it was a valiant effort in defeat including a hat-trick of tries from Jim Bowbeer. Joe Maddock also grabbed a try and a conversion as the 2s went down 29-22.

Holmes Chapel RUFC would like to acknowledge and thank all club sponsors for their support. For more information on our sponsors please visit our website: https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/holmeschapel/d/sponsors.html