Bo’ on the Wrong side of a 10 try Drubbing!

With the number of injuries having an effect throughout the club and some late call offs the firsts travelled to St Helens for the third time this season. This time it was to take on second place Liverpool St Helens. It was always going to be a hard hard game, the chink of possible light being the last league performance against the league leaders AK.

For the Clay Lane faithful watching on this was a game or 3 parts! The first 10 minutes were all LSH - as before in several games Bowdon seemed to still be half asleep. Only waking up when the score board was against them. The home site looked eager and more physical in this period. The right wing running in their first try on 3 minutes after the ball was passed through the hands of the backs to great effect. 4 minutes latter a mismatch out wide saw Neil Collinge defending against the full back in full flow - with people outside for support. No contest although Neil had the hit to ensure the try was scored out wide.

This seemed to wake Bowdon up - For the next 30 minutes Bo’ clicked into gear and played most of it camped in the home 22’ . First Points on the Board came from our new Fly half - taking a quick ball from a ruck just to the right of the posts and standing just outside the 22 Dropped 3 points. Not quite in the same class as the famous Swets Drop goal of last season’s finally, but points on the Board. The new lad played well - putting in some great tackles and marshalling the backs well.

Five minutes later and Carding looked to have released the ever youthful John Linkman who found himself out wide on the left. Some would say it was great positional play - others possibly age taking its toll and hanging out for a 5 minute rest. Scampering over the line Linky put the ball down only for the play to be brought back for an earlier penalty, the final passed harshly judged to have been forward.

The LSH Helens defence was creaking, and Bowdon were looking dangerous in attack. For the first time this season the lineout was working and the backs were getting quality ball. Things were looking bright. With half an hour gone - the home site broke out of their own half - into Bowdon territory. Bo were penalised in front of their own posts and the home site settled for 3 points with the penalty attempt.

Bo finally crossed the whitewash on with 16 minutes of the half remaining, A strong run from Tom Keevil Took Bowdon deep into LSH territory, infact he was unluck to get caught by the cover defence. From the resulting ruck The forwards quickly used a couple of phases to suck in the home defence before releasing the ball to the backs. The ball was spun wide with Johnny Thomas running in the try, Swets adding the conversion. This brought the score to 15 : 10 in favour of the home side. But with Bowdon now in the ascendancy things were looking good for the away support.

From a Penalty deep in the Bowdon half a long kick failed to reach touch. Running out of defence the winger was caught. As the Ball broke away from the ruck, LSH continued to attack, Craig Mason was left lying on the ground. The home side continued to attack at pace, down Bowdon’s right flank. Quick rucking and fast breaks and some missed tackled allowed LSH to cross the line and score. As the kicker was eying up the extra points - it became clear that Craig and also Sam Pacey were both coming off Craig after an accidental boot to the head and Sam popping his shoulder. A bit of re-jigging of the replacements and both Big Sean and Martin Gallagher moving into second row!

This Try seemed to knock the wind out of Bo – from the kick off the home team seemed to have regained their composure of the first 10 minutes while Bo were looking at halftime. This did come but only after the home side had run in another converted try bang on the halftime whistle.

The second half was a blur - with the home side rampant - running in 5 tries in 20 minutes. The final 20 minutes saw Bowdon putting up some resistance and limiting the home site to a final minute try. As usual Mitch McGrath made several breaks, always taking several players to eventually bring him down and was unlucky not to get a solo try midway through the half.

Bowdon firsts must pick themselves up for the game next week - a crunch home fixture against Manchester. For the 3 injured players - TC limping off 5 minutes into the second half- we wish them all a speedy recovery.