Report of Kirkby Lonsdale’s rugby from Robin Ree chatting to Alexander Candlin.

It was a stunning sunny afternoon at Underly Park spiced up by strong fluky wind for the final game of the season when Kirkby entertained a good mid table side from Lymm RUFC.

Kirkby startled the visitors with some fierce tackling to put a halt to early attacks, the home pack showed their season long commitment and achieved a couple of early turnovers to give the centres the chance to make good ground and feed the talented wing men who threatened the Lymm line an unfortunate knock on set the pattern for much of the rest of the game.

Short of weight in the pack Kirkby were left back peddling and living off scraps the scrums or giving away penalties.

Short of height on the day and with the strong erratic wind Kirkby’s line out struggled to function and lost several advantages to the bigger opposition.

Penned into their own half for much of the first half and unable to clear their lines Kirkby’s kicks out of defence on gave brief respite but was met with powerful running responses from the Lymm centres who then spread Kirkby wide and vulnerable with several early neatly converted tries, so the inevitable result at Half Time was 0 -21.

A better entertaining start to the second half brought Kirkby more into the game, even with Lymm still exploiting Kirkby’s lack of tackling muscle the home team worked a couple of moments of magic.

Cam Dale home on leave from the Navy loves to turn out for Kirkby and again proved his worth by finishing of some great team work with an evasive almost untouched mazy 5meter run to touch down followed by a James Coulton Conversion.

Will Brown is developing into a powerful versatile utility player with the potential to have a commanding presence on the field, by developing his kicking game and his spatial awareness he will be a great asset to Kirkby Rugby along with several of the other young players who have put their lives on the line for the team during this torrid season.

As if to pre-empt these comments Will Brown proved unstoppable at close quarters to touch down for Kirkby’s second and final score of the season.

Kirkby may be further weakened next season with retirements and players taking sabbaticals but the immense contribution and dedication to the team and the club by the likes of Dan Armistead, Harry Huddleston, James Coulton, Alex Briggs and our little General Ben Walker must be recognised and salute, and if possible, such valuable experience should be retained to become the nucleus of the new beginning for season 22/23.

The final score stood at Kirkby 12- Lymm 50.