What a tremendous season and what a tremendous climax on the final Saturday. Only 3 clubs were not involved in either a relegation or play off contest. Indeed, the RFU website went into melt-down for 45 minutes after the final whistles were sounded up and down the M6.

Wirral and Anselmians fought their way free from the relegation zone with fantastic victories over high flying Widnes and Northwich respectively. Broughton Park came off a run of 3 successes to lose in front of their own faithful against Wilmslow. Park having recorded 10 wins in the season and assembled 48 points but still drop down a league. Wigton thumped Leigh but also found themselves relegated with Leigh finishing just one point off the relegation spot. Just imagine the frustration at Lowmoor Road, 50 points and relegated. Liverpool St Helens trounced Aspatria 52-0 to make no mistake with their play-off opportunity. Congratulations to them and good luck in their travels to Percy Park next Saturday. Carlisle finished 6th after beating Rochdale 34-17 at Warwick Road.

Finally to Vale of Lune where the home side edged a tight battle against champions Sandbach by a single point. 17-16

Anselmians 28 Northwich 5
At Malone Field, Eastham, Anselmians finally got the 4th try that they needed to reach league safety against a jaded Northwich who were 7-0 down half way to a Meha Pape try from a sweet Mason cross kick. The try was ably converted by the boot of Mason who was influential throughout. The home pack were going backwards throughout the first half until the replacement was made and corrected this unusual situation. Northwich had earlier missed a kickable penalty after having plenty of possession and territory but without significant penetration. Second half tries from Tupoa, who got two and Nick Hearn were all converted by Mason while Gallimore and Robinson played a clever 8 and 9 move off the back of a scrum for Gallimore to chip into the goal area and win the race to touch down for the visitors.

Ben Jones had his first start for Northwich and he joins others from the Moss Farm colts production line in achieving first team rugby. Anselmians, with Mason in the side, are a different team from the squad that played their opening match against Northwich back in September, with Mason sidelined and on crutches. Now that they have adjusted to the higher tempo at this level they should be comfortable in this league.

Wirral 31-29 Widnes
A humdinger at Clatterbridge, with Wirral just getting the win that saw them finish 9th in the table rather than being relegated. Widnes seldom perform to their full potential against their hosts and this match was no exception. Wirral went off with a rush, scoring two converted tries in the initial 10 minutes courtesy of.Rob Pearl and Danny Harvey with Craig Harvey converting both. Andrew Riley has had a great season for Widnes and he was good value when he finished off a splendid backs move that is becoming the trademark of Widnes’s first season at this level. Craig Harvey kicked a penalty to give the home side a 17-7 lead but by half time Widnes had wiped the lead out with further tries from Riley and then Leadbetter. Widnes had earlier lost their hooker to a red card, but it was the visitors back line that were causing the damage.HT 17-17

Rob Pearl crossed again for Wirral 2 minutes into the second period, after good work by Annetts and Craig Harvey knocked the conversion over. 14 man Widnes became entrenched deep into the Wirral half but Wirral then lost Marsh to the bin. With the sides numerically even for 10 minutes, it was Wirral who scored again when Craig Harvey jinked his way through and over the whitewash for a try that he converted himself. With a bonus point in the bag the Wirral connections heaved a sigh of relief. 31-17 and nearly 20 minutes still to play. Widnes responded again despite being a man down and Andrew Riley rounded off a fine season with two more typical tries with, critically, just one being converted. Would a 31-31 draw been a fairer result? In the event it made no difference but 3rd placed Widnes will be very well pleased with this season. Wirral might be thinking about reinforcements after coming far too close to the drop zone after a solid first half of the season.

Broughton Park 16-27 Wilmslow
The battling Park side didn’t quite have enough in their tank to finish the job and relegation will be a bitter pill for the proud Manchester side to swallow. On the day, Wilmslow, who are often not good travellers were good value for their victory and they finish 7th but only 7 points above the 3rd relegation spot such is the competition in this thrilling season.

Wilmslow had a cracking first half and yet it was Jonny Thomas for Park that kicked a couple of early penalties to go 6-0 ahead. They never looked in control however and once Wilmslow cut out the handling errors their well oiled machine started to tick over pleasantly. Ben Day cut inside to score for the visitors and MacCallum took his side ahead with the conversion. Thomas kicked a third penalty for Park but Wilmslow took down a line out in the home half and, after forwards and backs combined, it was Day who crossed for the visitors. Once again Park made a basic error to hand the initiative to their visitors and second row Mike Clifford eventually took advantage to score for the Wolves. After the break MacCallum knocked over a penalty and then the same player was instrumental in enabling his backs to spread play wide for Ben Day to add yet another try and his sides’ fourth. Now 27-9 ahead the visitors skipper was yellow carded and the aforesaid oil started to drip out of the Wilmslow sump. George Carpenter came on for Park and scored a good try that Mitchell converted but Wilmslow were not seriously troubled despite much effort by the beleaguered home side. Park’s disastrous run from December to mid March when they lost 11 straight matches was the reason for their demotion. Still, 10 wins and 48 points should not see a side go down in any other season than this. A good finish to Giles Heagerty’s reign as Wilmslows coach but Heagerty goes off to Nat 1 Macclesfield while retaining his England U18 duties. His coaching skills will be missed by the Wolves.

Carlisle 34-17 Rochdale
Carlisle climbed to 6th in the table after this victory and the Cumbrian sides connections will be satisfied after a poor Autumn when they took some fearful beatings. The pack has been the platform on which the seasons eventual success has been built plus the kicking of Glen Weightmann. With a couple of extra link men this team will finish next season even higher.

On the day it was Weightmann who kicked his side ahead with a penalty but Bradwall could not bring his side level when given a similar chance. Weightmann then took the opportunity to sidestep his way through a static Rochdale defence to score a very good individual try and then comfortably convert it. Bradwall kicked a penalty for Dale but Carlisle struck back when the number 8 Lee Brumpton guided the 10 metre scrum all the way to touch down in a typical Carlisle push-over try. Dan Holmes for Carlisle was given too much space a short time later and the winger went the distance with Weightmann converting.

Rochdale started the second period brightly and a good interception by Tom Andrews was run all the way in by the Rochdale quickie. Bradwall added the extras. Brumpton took a ten minute break for Carlisle but his side were in no mood to slow down and Holmes got his second score. Carlisle then took their total to 34 points when a rolling maul rumbled across the chalk with prop Joe Anderson cheerfully claiming the score and Weightmann made no mistake with the conversion. To their credit the shell-shocked Rochdale did not give up and were rewarded for their vigilance when winger Josh Schofield intercepted yet another wayward home pass to trot home with Bradwall adding the two extras.

Liverpool St Helens 52-0 Aspatria
Not a lot of detail re scores and scorers to find in the usual places about this rather one-sided match. It may be that Barney Clegg has been showing John Williams and his LSH committee how to find Percy Park because that is where the Moss Laners will be going to this coming Saturday. Percy Park made a strong late challenge to overhaul both Wheatley Hills and Middlesbrough to once again take the runners up place in North 1 East. They were there last season but went down narrowly in the play-off to our own Burnage so expect a tough contest.

Aspatria will be looking back on another difficult season and they will find Wigton joining them this time so no automatic return next season. We shall miss Barney Cleggs weekly insight and stats but readers will note that there is already an alternative to his weekly prediction league running on the Wilmslow site. Teams from each club might like to enter this next year a win a couple of Kgs of “snags” from the sponsoring Farm Shop butchers.

The runners-up spot was contested right up to the last match of the season so well done to Widnes and Northwich for playing their part. Our best wishes go to LSH next week.

Wigton 38-15 Leigh
Wigton went down fighting and with a glorious 6 try performance they showed that they will provide a large obstacle in neighbours Aspatria’s route back next season. The Wigton scribe points out that the greens have not won outside of Cumbria this term and problems away from home has not been confined to Wigton. Vale of Lune & Northwich’s faithful will readily confirm this.

Wigton were 19-0 ahead within a half an hour after good tries by Jordan Wood, Dave Hanabury and Gregg Smith. Smith converted two out of the three. Leigh, who hadn’t had much of the ball, did manage a Forshaw penalty. Wigton were in sight of that vital 4th try and it came the slow way. The pack inched their way forward, patiently taking two steps forward and one step sidewards until skipper Matthew Atkinson finally dropped on the ball, to much cheering from the packed throng. Leigh did manage a try when a good combination of moves saw the outside centre cross the home line. Back came the greens and Mark Deans, playing the game of his life, made it 31-8 at the break with a typical thundering score.

The second period was something of an anticlimax with just one converted try apiece with Callum Studholme answering a Leigh score. Good conversion by Gregg Smith from the touchline. A final cameo appearance by prop Sean Clorley for the home side. Sean was loudly applauded by the Lowmoor Road faithful. The fit and able 48 yr old puts many of those retiring at 30 to shame.

Vale of Lune 17-16 Sandbach
The champions lost by a single point in a very tight match at Powderhouse Lane Lancaster. It was always going to be close but the high scoring Vale lads seem to have engaged a defence coach recently.With the wind in their favour Vale got going and used the wind and pitch size to pin the visitors back in the first 20 minutes. Vale eventually kicked long into the in goal area and winger Hall got there first. After the restart the same tactic brought a second try with James Hodder this time winning the foot race to score. Neither try was converted although this proved not to be crucial at the final whistle. HT 10-0

With the elements now in Sandbach’s favour the large crowd were expecting fireworks. In fact it was a succession of penalties that allowed Ben Elliot to kick 9 points in short order. What a signing Elliot was last Summer. In the space of just 12 months he has exchanged South Lancashire and Cheshire rugby for National 3 (next term) and he has played a significant role for the Champs both as full back as well as an alternate kicker. He would be one of this columns nominations North 1 West player of the season, along with Andrew Riley of Widnes perhaps

After further pressure from the Sandbach forwards it looked likely that they might take the lead on a couple of occasions but the ever alert Vale 9 Darren Wilson had other ideas. He collected a quick ball from the scrum to run in under the posts and open up a game winning gap. Tom Carter’s conversion took the score to 17-9. With just 5 minutes left on the clock it was Sandbach’s turn to break out of defence and Elliot ran end to end before laying a try on the plate for Jack Leech who, as ever, was on his colleagues shoulder. 17-16 after the successful conversion and still plenty of chances in the last few frantic minutes but that was that.

Congratulations to Vale on the day but let us finish the season properly with congratulations to Sandbach who richly deserve their success and wish them well in the new season, whichever geographical direction they travel