Kirkby Lonsdale 12-21 Billingham

Kirkby Lonsdale were beaten 21-12 at home to promotion-chasing Billingham on Saturday in a fluctuating howling wind.
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Given the preceding wet weather, the pitch was in remarkably good condition and remained so throughout the game and some credit must go to groundsman Pete Kyles for that.

Kirkby kicked off down wind towards the clubhouse and the early exchanges were fairly even with probably the slight edge to Kirkby and this materialised into the first try when the forwards camped on the Billingham line.

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Sam Kyle-Clay was the man in possession to score the try, ably assisted by Harlan Corrie as the pack crossed the whitewash near the posts, Mike Fearon slotted the conversion and it was 7-0 with 10 minutes played.

Sam Kyle-Clay scored Kirkby Lonsdales opening try.Sam Kyle-Clay scored Kirkby Lonsdales opening try.
Sam Kyle-Clay scored Kirkby Lonsdales opening try.

However, elusive running and sloppy tackling allowed Billingham back into the game with a try in the right corner.

Into and across the wind the touchline conversion never stood much of a chance, it duly missed and Kirkby hung onto their lead of 7-5 at the end of the first quarter.

The next scoring chance for Kirkby was a long range penalty downwind from the halfway line.

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Fearon struck it very well and it looked good all the way but it hammered into an upright and stayed out.

Approaching half-time Billingham scored their second try, which was converted to put them into the lead 12-7 and that remained the score when the whistle went to end an even half with only one score separating the teams.

With the second half under way, David Cooper-Dunn was on for the injured Reece Tomlinson and it was Kirkby who struck first with a debut first XV try for the powerful young winger Ryan Allwood.

The try came from forward pressure in the Billingham 22m, then a sweeping move from the Kirkby backs to create a chance for Allwood who brushed off a tackle to score in the right corner.

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The conversion was from the almost identical place to Billingham’s in the first half and it suffered the same fate.

Fearon again struck it well enough but the wind Gods had their way, it went wide and the teams were level again at 12-12 mid-way through the second half.

A few decisions then went against Kirkby and they swung the game Billingham’s way with nine points coming from the boot of their stand off Peter Evans, who kicked two easy penalties and dropped a goal. As the clock wound down Fearon did have a kick at goal into the wind to bring Kirkby back into losing bonus point range and they were well worth that but agonisingly the ball didn’t quite hold in the wind and shaved the post on the wrong side.

This went some way to sum up Kirkby’s frustrations on the day and at full time it was two tries apiece with the score still 21-12.

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