Loss leaves Macclesfield joint bottom
OVER in Peterborough last Saturday, in what was the first meeting of the two clubs, Macclesfield initially held the upper hand in the basement battle of National Two North with a 12-0 interval lead and looking good for a much needed ‘W’.
Sadly, the home side had other ideas and a robust second half performance saw them edge the result with a final scoreline of 14-12 to take the four points.
Despite a losing bonus point, it means that Macc share the basement spot with Peterborough and on the same points but a better difference.
Leicester Lions sit 10 points above us in the ‘danger area’ of the table.
Clearly there is much more time until the end of next April but the results have simply got to come if we are to move away from the bottom three ‘danger spots’ in the table and hopefully this can be started when early season league leaders – Hinckley – come to Priory Park for our next encounter on Saturday.
Elsewhere in Two North on Saturday leaders Hull Ionians beat Otley to take five points, Hinckley, who, of course, we play come 3.pm. Saturday had a satisfying 49-5 home victory over Preston Grasshoppers with second placed Chester surprisingly losing at home to visiting Fylde 16-7. At South Leicester the home side came out on top in a high scoring encounter beating Huddersfield 35-29 and yet another big scoring game saw Stourbridge beat Sedgley Park 36-29. A Yorkshire ‘Derby’ saw Wharfedale lose out at home to Sheffield Tigers in a 35-26 scoreline. Finally Tynedale came out on top of visiting Leicester Lions 32-17 all of which leaves the middle of the table quite crowded with just six points separating six clubs.
I watched most of the game at Priory Park where the 2nd XV entertained and beat visiting Fylde in a good close encounter whilst the 3rds lost out to a strong Waterloo second team. The 4th XV continued their good progress with a high scoring victory over Oswestry Seconds – report, as usual, elsewhere on these pages.
On the International scene the Autumn games concluded with England getting one over on the Aussies at Twickenham in an entertaining 37-18 victory which will hopefully stand them in good stead come the Six Nations early next year – we can but hope.
Elsewhere Wales beat South Africa, Scotland beat Argentina and Ireland easily beat the USA so all countries now have plenty of game time under the belt in preparation for that annual tournament come 2019.
On a personal note I always seek out the results of the clubs I previously played for before I came to the old Tytherington HQ of Macclesfield back in 1974 and my first club – Warrington – now playing in North One West at level 6 and I see last week they had a close victory over Douglas (IOM) where we have enjoyed a few Easter Tours over the years and Bowdon beat Fleetwood at Level 7 in Lancs/Cheshire Division 1 to remain in contention for promotion in second place. It would be nice to see them up with Macclesfield in the not too distant future. I, and I am sure many others, have good memories of our old clubhouse and those ‘interesting’ post match baths at Tythy especially after the MOT made such a mess of the drainage when the Silk Road was built. Happy days indeed!!
Anyway back to reality and games for Macc sides this Saturday as follows:1st v. Hinckley – Home – 3.pm. 2nd v. Chester – Away 3rd v. Stockport 2 – Home 4th v. Free Week – No game
That’s it for now – enjoy your Rugby – I do.