Most matches went with the form book with the exception of Carlisle who registered an all penalty win over visitors Broughton Park 24-12 and the suspicion is that the City of Carlisle giant is awakening from its early season slumbers. Wirral held Liverpool St Helens for most of the match but the final result was 21-14 to LSH with LSH reports talking about fitness prevailing. Vale of Lune beat Wigton 37-7 in Lancaster and Widnes beat Anselmians 30-7 in the battle of the two promoted from S/Lancs and Cheshire last term. Aspatria 29-40 Leigh were good value for their 29 points but on the day Leigh were winners in a hard fought match at the Bower. Sandbach 23-12 Wilmslow, Sandbach overcame neighbours Wilmslow in a very even match but Davenport and Burton scored from defensive scrums either side of half time for the league leaders. In the other match Rochdale 32-38 Northwich was looking all over at 60 minutes with the away side 38-13 ahead. Rochdale took advantage of further Northwich injury replacements to run in 3 tries in the final quarter and just ran out of time otherwise they would certainly have won.
Neither Sandbach nor LSH managed a bonus point but Leigh are the bonus kings with 7 from 7 matches.

Carlisle 24- 12 Broughton Park
Carlisle followed their triumph at Wigton with a first home win this term against Broughton Park. The Carlisle faithful will have noticed that their activity in the market recently has encouraged competition among their backs with two of their signings being centres, from Northern and Saffron Walden and the 3rd, a local winger.

On the day Carlisle were happy to take the points against a Park side who often struggle on the road. It was the penalty count and indiscipline that cost the visitors dear however. Penalty after penalty in the first half saw Carlisle 15-0 ahead at the break with Park's Tuohy and Carpenter in the sin bin for backchat. The first play of the second period saw yet another penalty awarded against Park but then the visitors freed speedster Titiloye who scored well and O'Brien converted. Carlisle replied with yet another penalty 18-7 but Park were doing the running and Adedayo crossed for the visitors. At 18-12 looked still in the match but Carlisle kicked another penalty and then following a succession of 4 more penalties awarded against them -2 of which were kicked- the visitors found themselves 24-12 down. The match ended much as the first half had finished. A Carlisle lock was yellow carded 2 minutes from time and in time added on there was just time for the Park hooker to discuss the award count with the ref (yellow) and then further advance his case (red) before calm was restored. 8 penalties for Carlisle to 2 tries and a conversion for Park was probably a fair reflection of the match.

Liverpool St Helens 21 -14 Wirral
Liverpool St Helens were 9-6 ahead then behind 11-9 against visitors Wirral before Andy McDowell ran in a couple of tries to give the Moss Lane side the spoils. Earlier Danny Harvey had scored a cracking try from 20m out after brother Craig had carved out the opening. Wirral are very competitive again this season and they matched the home side throughout the majority of the match. LSH connections suggest that their greater fitness saw them home eventually. Difficult to disagree with that point in fact as LSH do score a lot of final quarter points.

Widnes 30-7 Anselmians
Widnes saw off the challenge of neighbours Anselmians, winning 30-7. Widnes were quickly away from the visitors as Leadbetter (2) and Matt Smith crossed for early tries. Anselmians came back into the game and Pennington scored well after a good Tupou No 8 drive. The final quarter saw Widnes's Varley and Riley close the game out with good scores. Anselmians are suffering multiple injuries and, without have insufficient depth in the squad, colts are being drafted in to a team playing in a very strong league.

Sandbach 23-12 Wilmslow
Pre match thoughts were that this was to be a kicking duel between Bob MaCallum and will Cargill but in the event the match was decided by two Sandbach forwards in the unlikely form of second row Davenport and flanker Oli Burton. We are not really used to extolling the virtues of the Sandbach pack but the cruscial tries both came from scrums won against the head. Firstly Cargill put lock Chris Davenport away and the big chap gallopped across the whitewash with some delight. Early on in the second half another Wilmslow scrum was lost for Oli Burton to score. For the record Cargill knocked over 5 from 6 to edge the kicking duel on the day albeit that all 12 Wilmslow points came from MaCallums boot.

Vale of Lune 37-7 Wigton
Predictable result perhaps with Vale a very difficult side to upset at Powder House Lane. Two late tries by No 4 Lee Acton were the highlights perhaps but it took Vale sometime to establish superiority and also to get used to the Wilson/Carter half back pairing instead of the usual 10 Jimmy Moore. Carter turned playmaker and Vale recovered well from Wigtons frenetic start with saw them into top gear early on and Tom Gardener catitalised on an error by Vale and crossed for the visitors. Dave Hanabury converted. At 7-0 down the Vale gradually moved up through the gears and, after a Carter penalty, and on the stroke of half time, a Darren Wilson sortie resulted in Carter kicking through for Hughes to collect and go in near to the corner flag. Carter converted well from wide out. The second half saw a typical James Hodder try who ran in from 40m out and then came Actons brace of tries the second of which is reported to be from distance. Praise for Referee Kevin Warwick which is good to hear.

Rochdale 32-38 Northwich
The sunshine in Rochdale was appreciated by all -except perhaps by the Rochdale President who is welsh, and who sported a black tie in memory of a campaign cruelly lost on foreign shores earlier in the day. Rochdale were looking well beaten after an hour following early tries from Northwich's stand off Cass Walding who intercepted for an easy score before Tommy Gunn crossed in the corner for Dale and Des Whitehead converted very well from the line. Walding grabbed a second for the visitors and then after 30 minutes Northwich winger Joel Barber took the ball into a maul 5m out and prop Chris James came up last to claim the try. Hallam was kicking well for Northwich but just before the break Whitehead got a penalty back to change over with the score 10-21 to the visitors. After the break Northwich piled on the pressure and Walding, Barber and flanker Mckibbin were punching holes in the Rochdale defence. Hallum kicked a penalty, Barber crossed for a try and after Whitehead had kicked another penalty for Dale, McKibbin added to the Northwich total with a typical bullocking run. 13-38 with 20 minutes to play. Walding came off with an ankle problem as did prop Cray for the visitors and the game turned around dramatically. Rochdale seemed to smell the complacency and their backs exude class going forward. Go forward they did, with Jeremy Lefton, Tommy Helliwell and John McNichols all scoring very good tries. With 5 minutes to play they looked like winning the game so much were they on top. No doubt who was pleased to hear the final whistle. The much vaunted Northwich defence has now leaked 124 points this season with 19 of them in the final quarter of this game.

Aspatria 29-40 Leigh
The visitors are playing very well as a team this season but do not generally travel well and Aspatria have got more energy into their game recently so a good match was expected. The spectators were not to be disappointed. Aspatria started with coach Mike Scott at fly half and several home forays resulted in a successful Clegg penalty. Leigh worked their way back into the match and a kickable penalty was rejected in favour of a kick to the corner. Leigh's catch and drive moves are very well executed and Aspatria committed plenty of brawn to the defense of this ploy but instead of going for the roll over Leigh went blind and scored through Foreshaw with the extras being added.3-7. Still end to end play but after 25 minutes Leigh entered a purple patch that saw them play really exciting rugby that resulted in 4 tries in 12 minutes to go 33-3 ahead. Mike Scott must have put something into Aspatrias half time tea because they came out all guns blazing and Askew scored with Clegg converting. Aspatria were in control. Mark Lister barged through and was pulled up just short but Miller was on his shoulder to cross. Miller then charged down a Leigh clearing kick and Askew won the race to score yet again for the home side. At 22-33 the result was looking much less certain. A kick forward by Aspatria was picked up by Adam Dyson for Leigh. It all looked quite inocuous as Dyson made good yardage but his progress became much more dangerous as he swerved past a static defence and completed a wonderful run under the posts to take the game beyond the home side at 22-40. Still time for Aspatria to score a rare 4th try with Nick Edgar going over in the corner and Clegg converting well. Good match.

It is looking very tight at the bottom with Carlisle winning a couple. Aspatria are looking more threatening and Wigton picking up the all-important bonus points. Expect to see Wilmslow and Anselmians look to reinforce their squads. At the top Sandbach march on, with LSH in close attendance. Widnes look the best of the following pack on current form but the heavier pitches now beckon and still 75% of the season to play.