Three wins from two games home and two away, in seasons ending with one promotion and two relegations (and a performance which in hindsight hinted at a relegation to come)

As previous mentioned they include one of my favourite games, and another was quite good. What I had not realised was it also includes one of our most disappointing performances - although even that includes an unsuccessful late fight back.

19 April 2018
Birkenhead Park (Away)
We came into the game safe in seventh with ten wins and a draw, whilst Park were already relegated with just three wins and a draw. The previous weekend we had lost 7v33 to second placed Hull, but even then we had drawn the second half 7v7, and in our previous game we had become only the third team (including Champions Preston Grasshoppers) to have won at Wirral. So we should have come onto the game confident. Possibly over confident ?

The programme mentioned Park who were a bit of a yo-yo team, too strong for the League below, but not strong enough for this one. They should have won at Mint Bridge just before Christmas, on the first League game played on the 3G, when they lost by two points having decided against taking two kickable penalties late on.

We had the better of the opening exchanges, but were making too many mistakes, with passes being force, often going to ground, or being intercepted.

After fifteen minutes Birkenhead Park made a good break down the right wing, which needed a try saving tackle from Dini Noyo, the ball was moved left and again Park looked certain to score, only for Danny Barker to get across to make a tackle. We were trapped on our line and twice gave away penalties, and finally a Park player went over from short range to open the scoring.

We continued to have the better of play, but the mistakes continued to prevent a score. We were struggling at the lineout, which often required John Dervey to stretch to tap poor ball back, or Alistair Thompson and Glenn Chesher, at the back of the line to gather ball which had failed to find its original target. Eventually Garry Holmes took over the throws, which improved things, although there were still problems

Chris Downham made a good run from close to halfway. When he was stopped Dini Noyo took the move on, and also made ground into the Park twenty two. The ball was re-cycled and Glen Weightman broke through the centre, but was hauled down by the last defender, and had no one in support. The forwards took the move on, but the ball was knocked on near the line. Robbie Collinson made a good break through the centre, but his pass went forward to a Birkenhead Park player.

There was another period of Kendal pressure on the Park line, but during a drive towards the line, a number of forwards chose to stay in the centre or on the wing, and it fell to Chris Park to add his weight, but the defence held out.

The half ended with just the one score between the teams.

There was a bad start to the second half, as the Park restart kick was knocked on. This gave then a scrum and the ball was moved into the centre, and whilst the defence held out, the ball was spread right and there seemed a certain try, but Danny Barker again managed to stop the ball being grounded. A strong Park scrum earned a penalty, which was put to touch. From the lineout, the Park forwards set up a drive for the line, and whilst we held out, a player broke away to go over for the try.

Another poor re-start saw us concede a penalty, which immediate put Park back on the attack.

Kris Bratton and Chris Downham both made frequent attempt to break the defence, but Park had clearly done their homework and gave them little space.

The third Park try came with just over fifteen minutes to play. In the Kendal twenty two, Park lost the ball at a lineout, giving us a scrum put in, but Park drove the pack backwards and Mattie Kaye did well to get a clearance kick away, but it kept Park on the attack. Having secured ball, the Park pack drove for the line, and again a player broke away to score. The conversion kick kept very low, but crawled over the bar. 21v0.

With Park again on the attack, and seeming to be looking for their fourth bonus point try, their outside half (ex Ireland and Ulster player Simon Mason) oddly decided to take a drop goal. In hindsight this was to prove a vital decision. 24v0

With ten minutes to play we made a further change with Mattie Kaye being replaced by Jordan Johnson, who went onto the left wing with Dini Noyo going to scrum half.

The change quickly paid off with Dini going over for our opening score. Clearly there were still thoughts of a Kendal comeback as Chris Park, quickly drop kicked the conversion. 24v7.

A number of Park players were clearly now struggling, and it took a long time for the ball to be get back for the re-start.

We were quickly back on the attack and four minutes later added a second try. Glen Weightman spotted the Park defence coming up quickly, as the referee had let them do all afternoon, and rolled a kick through, which Dan Barker chased to touchdown, this time Glen adding the drop kick conversion. 24v14.

Park seemed to be finishing the game the stronger, and a good cross field passing move hinted at a fourth try, but instead a pass went loose and Glen Weightman gathered the ball and made a long break from within his half to the Park twenty two. Just when it looked as if the Park defence would catch him, he got the ball away to Kris Bratton who cleverly looped around the defence to score. The conversion was quickly added, but this was the last action off the game, and there was no chance of a (barely deserved), extra score for victory.

It was an odd season where we won as many games away from Mint Bridge as we did at home and scored over 100 points more away, although we did also concede 169 more (although almost half of these came in one game at Preston Grasshoppers).

15 - Chris Park
14 - Kris Bratton
13 - Mike Fearon
12 - Danny Barker
11 - Dini Noyo
10 - Glen Weightman
9 - Mattie Kaye

1 - Glenn Chesher
2 - Robbie Collinson
3 - Dom Musetti
4 - John Dervey
5 - Ben Leacock
6 - Garry Holmes
7 - Alistair Thompson
8 - Chris Downham

rep - Jack Lashley
rep - Ross McKay
rep - Jordan Johnson

13 April 2013
Billingham (Home)
We were already relegated for a second season and had lost 119v0 away at Sandal a week earlier.

We had come desperately close to a first away win in a season in a half, in the re-arranged away game before Christmas. In poor conditions we held onto a 0v11 half time lead until Billingham scored in the seventh minute of injury time (still no idea where the referee found them, but it was hard to argue that the better team on the afternoon had not won)

After the previous weekend’s result, there was unsurprisingly some big gaps on the touchline, but the crowd was bolstered by a large contingent from Billingham, many in Hawaiian fancy dress, which sadly was not matched by the weather.

Billingham started the game well, and soon had us penned in their twenty two, having little option but to kick to touch when we had the ball, to temporarily relieve the pressure.

However having weathered the early storm, we were soon in the game and opened the scoring after nine minutes. Good interplay in midfield had set up a position in the Billingham twenty two, and the forwards pounded the line, for James Thompson to come up with the opening try. 5v0.

Instead of, as so often that season, switching off after a score, and immediately conceding, we came straight back from the kick off, but a move finally broken down in the Billingham twenty two, when we were penalised for not releasing the ball after a tackle.

Liam Hayton made a good break from defence, continued by Simon Mulholland to set up a good position in the Billingham twenty two. Simon Davidson somehow managed to cling on to a poor pass and took the move forward, before it broke down with a knock on. Billingham had been disrupted by the loss of a forward to injury, and our pack took full advantage by stealing the ball at the resulting scrum. Again the forwards pounded the line, and finally, despite being stopped before the line, Billy Coxon was able to stretch out to touchdown for the second try. With all the regular kickers injured or unavailable, Simon Davidson took on the role and added the convertion. 12v0.

Billingham were back in the game two minutes later. We were penalised for not rolling away after a tackle, and the penalty was quickly moved to the right wing for a try in the corner 12v5.

We continued to put pressure on Billingham, and the forwards were totally dominating the lineout and scrum, but the referee missed regular obstruction of Dini Noyo playing at scrum half, as he went in search of loose ball.

At the end of normal time in the first half the referee penalised the Billingham fullback for being ahead of his kicker, as he chased a kick out of defence. Rather than take a kick at goal, we opted for a scrum, and the forwards set up a maul, from which Reece Thomlinson broke away to score from close range.

So we turned around with a 17v5 half time lead, needing just one further try for a rare bonus point.

It came after five minutes, after a run down the right wing by Peter Baynes, the ball was moved into the centre, with Jason Poleman taking the move on. The forwards then took the ball to the line, with hooker Duncan Green coming up with the try. 22v5

Billingham came back into the game, after the referee spotted a number of Kendal backs well offside in defence near halfway. After allowing a long period of advantage, he came back for the penalty. A clever cross field chip was gathered for a try in the left hand corner. 22v10

We continued to play well, and a strong break through the centre by flanker Liam Nicholson set us on our way to the fifth try. A penalty for offside was put to the line and the forwards rumbled to the try line for a second try by Reece Tomlinson. 27v10.

Better was to follow. A drop out from Simon Davidson’s, was fielded by wing Peter Baynes who made a long break down the right. When he was stopped prop Billy Coxon was in support to take the move on, and he was able to feed captain Liam Hayton, who galloped to the line for the try, with Simon Davidson putting over the easy conversion 34v10 with twenty five minutes to play.

The fantasy of a twenty four point lead, almost turned to a nightmare, as Billingham ran in twenty one unanswered points in five minutes.

First a long kick out of defence, bounced favourably for their fullback, who was able to gather and run in to score 34v17 with the easy conversion.

A second kick caused confusion in our defence, and their left wing profited with a try. 34v24

A further kick up field saw more confusion in our defence. Right wing Peter Baynes was unable to gather a bouncing ball, and the referee decided he had deliberately played the ball into touch with his hands, awarding a penalty and harshly sin binning him. Billingham took advantage by putting a kick down his wing, for a try which with the conversion, reduced the lead back to just three points. 34v31

Taking advantage of rolling substitutions, we brought back the youngest of their old heads, Garry Holmes, and the experienced players steadied the ship, although there were further mistakes.

We were awarded a penalty and put it to the corner, only for indecision at the lineout to lead to the referee penalising us. When this was taken, the kick was easily dealt with by fullback Simon Mulholland, but we were penalised for the tackle on the Billingham kicker, giving them a good position from which to mount an attack.

This was dealt with, and we came back and when awarded an easy penalty in front of the posts, which would have meant Billingham needed a converted try to win, our forward dominance and memories of the late late drama of the away fixture, saw us instead opt for a scrum. The forwards drove well, and when the scrum broke up Garry Holmes took the ball on, then after it was re-cycled, he was on hand again for the match sealing try. Simon Davidson put the conversion over for a ten point cushion going into injury time.

We were not finished, and Dini Noyo made a break from defence down the right wing. The ball was moved across field and it looked as if Peter Baynes had scored his first try, but he had just put a foot in touch.

The forwards continued to put pressure on the Billingham line, but when the ball was held up on the line, at the resulting scrum the referee decided that the dominant Kendal scrum had been disrupted and instead awarded a scrum to Billingham.

When flanker Liam Nicholson gathered the clearance kick, he put the ball dead to end Kendal’s last home game of the season, with a memorable win.

The recovery lasted a week as we went down 47v0 on an old artificial pitch at Burnage in the final game of the season.

15 - Simon Mulholland
14 - Peter Baynes
13 - Jason Poleman
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Alistair Thompson
10 - Simon Davidson
9 - Dini Noyo

1 - Billy Coxon
2 - Duncan Green
3 - Richard Harryman
4 - Liam Hayton
5 - Reece Tomlinson
6 - James Thompson
7 - Liam Nicholson
8 - Garry Holmes

Rep - Ben Leacock
Rep - Dan Greenwood
Rep - Rob Wightman

19 April 2008
Sheffield Tigers (Home)
Promotion and the League title were already secured, and this game was about completing a 100% League record with the first twenty one games won.

Sheffield Tigers were mid-table, but had given us a really hard game in strong winds at the start of December, where playing with the wind in the first half it took until the last minute of the half to open the scoring with a Luke Ladell try. Sheffield’s negative tactics however had shown us how to play into the wind, and after James Gough scored three minutes into the second half, we ground out a 3v10 win.

After twenty four league and cup games, regular fullback Hoani Moore was the only one of the regular first team squad to have not scored a try. In his last game for the club, that was about to change. He moved to outside half with regular outside half Dan Stephens on the bench

We started well and after ten minutes Moore, made a break and bulldozed through – I thought he passed the ball before the line, but either he didn’t or he got the pass back, and had his first try of the season. Chris Park added the easy conversion.

Like at Altrincham the previous weekend, a string of errors kept the score down and Sheffield in the game. Every time we turned over ball we knocked it on and what were training ground moves, with players arriving at pace, ended up with the ball not going to hand.

After twenty five minutes Moore made another break and this time went over untouched for his second try, Chris Park added the conversion.

We weathered a storm of Sheffield attacks in the run up to half time and turned around with a 14 point lead.

The score stayed the same for twenty minutes until the forwards took over and No 8 Mark Wilson barged over in the corner for an unconverted try 19v0

Five minutes later a sweeping move across the field resulted in right wing John Ladell’s fifteenth try of the season – again unconverted 24v0.

At this point we clearly decided the game was won, and we would end the League season in style playing Barbarian rugby, running the ball from everywhere, and keeping it moving rather than tied it up in the forwards.

On the half hour, James Gough took a quick tap penalty beat the defence and passed to the Hoani Moore who still had a lot to do, but outpaced the defence for his hat trick (he did look to pass when behind the line but decided against it). A successful Chris Park conversion gave a score of 36v0.

Despite being in a big lead we were still tackling strongly and whenever Sheffield had the ball they ended up going backwards

At the end of normal time, Sheffield were awarded a penalty in their 22 and decided to run it – something went wrong and the ball went loose. Hoani Moore, now playing in the centre as Dan Stephens had come on at outside half, hacked the ball through. He beat the ball to the dead ball line and stops it going over with his foot and just waited for the rest of the team to arrive before touching done for his fourth try of the game and season.

If Moore’s first try pleased the Kendal crowd, the final try of the game sent them home smiling. The ball went across field to flanker Nick McKain who about to return to New Zealand for the first time in two years, he stormed down the touchline to beat the Sheffield defence and score near the posts for Chris Park’s conversion to make the final score 43v0. This was at least the third time that season he had scored this type of try at the very end of a game (Huddersfield and Liverpool St Helens being others) – he was clearly extremely fit.

We then had the award of the Champions Cup – which was a bit of an anticlimax.

My concern was 6 of the 7 tries had come from players who would not be there next season. The two New Zealanders were off home, and Mark Wilson was reported to be joining Newcastle Falcons Academy. Fortunately Wilson played another season whilst McKain was back a season later – and we recruited Lewis Boyd (31 tries) and Zane Butler (9), whilst Craig Wilson returned with ten tries.

Not sure how accurate the figures were but the crowd for the Billingham game was listed on the official stats as 238 – for this game it was 643 – despite I suspect Billingham bringing a bigger support than Sheffield did.

15 - Chris Park
14 - John Ladell
13 - Brett Ashley
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Luke Ladell
10 - Hoani Moore
9 - James Gough

1 - Billy Coxon
2 - Duncan Green
3 - Dan Bowles
4 - Liam Hayton
5 - Gareth Gore
6 - Nick McKain
7 - Garry Holmes
8 - Mark Wilson

rep - Richard Harryman
rep - Rob Quarry
rep - Dan Stephens

26 April 2003
Fylde (Away)
This was a free weekend. I could have gone back to a 48v28 loss at Wharfdale on the 12th, which contributed to them retaining their league place by a single point. Instead I went for this one, between the two bottom clubs. Fylde had also lost the previous weekend to a fellow struggler Launceston, who were to lose out, on points difference to Nottingham who finished on the same League points.

We started well playing with the strong wind, and opened the scoring with a Mike Scott penalty after five minutes.

Fylde hardly left their half for the next fifteen minutes but then tied the scores, only for Scott to almost immediately re-open the gap

With ten minutes of the half to play we had a scrum which Fylde drove us off. The referee stopped play and from his signal it appeared he was penalising Fylde. It turned out it was for a serious injury to prop Ian Thompson.

He was forced off (unravelling seemly miles of bandaging) to be replaced by hooker Duncan Green. First choice hooker Ian Gowing was already missing, rumoured to be playing elsewhere, so Alan Holmes had replaced him, whilst Nigel Pearson was probably not expecting to play the full eighty minutes. So Fylde won most of the scrum ball from this point.

With only a narrow 3v6 lead at half time, having played with the wind, and with a scrum in trouble, things did not look hopefully. It also started raining

We then seemed to decide to run everything and dominated from the kickoff of the second half, with Fylde seeming to find kicking with the wind more difficult than against it.

After ten minutes scrum half Mark Airey charged a kick down, only for the ball to go to touch. The Fylde wing decided to take a quick throw to a startled player, who was easily dispossessed by Airey who scored, with Mike Scott adding the conversion 3v13

We immediately attack from the kick off and wing Tim Whitehead went over for a try converted by Mike Scott, - 14 points in four minutes.

The big Fylde pack drove over three minute later for a converted try to bring the score back to 10v20, but that was the final score for Kendal’s sixth win of the season and second double.

Not sure where Ian Gowing was that afternoon but he returned to Upper Eden the next season and Duncan played 26 of the 27 games (Billy Coxon played the other) and 28 of 30 the following season (Allen Martindale and Jon Nicholson filling the gaps)

15 - Dan Stephens
14 - Jason Balmer
13 - Martin Armstrong
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Tim Whitehead
10 - Mike Scott
9 - Mark Airey

1 - Nigel Pearson
2 - Alan Holmes
3 - Ian Thompson
4 - Andrew Hudson
5 - Dave Preston
6 - Keith Robinson
7 - Phil Skillern
8 - Adrian Bateson

rep - Duncan Green
rep - James Hadwin
rep - Steve Healey
rep - Jon Nicholson (u)

With recent mentions of Wayne Barnes visits to Mint Bridge, I was sure we had been officiated by another International panel referee, but this time one who was already there. When I tried looking for the game I could not find it, so of course when not looking found it.

In December 2003, on what was a Heineken (European) Cup weekend, Steve Lander who had been England’s referee at that year’s World Cup, had better things to do, and was instead refereeing Kendal v Blaydon in National League Division 2 (Level 4).