West Park Bramhope 24

Chester 6

WEST Park Bramhope finally overcame some strong resistance from a solid Chester side to record their fifth home victory of the season at The Sycamores.

Chester were a strong, physical side and their pack had the better of the early exchanges, however good defence from West Park prevented them crossing the whitewash.

Continual pressure finally led to fly-half Hill dropping over a penalty, which was cancelled out on 10 minutes when Park's full-back Jon Hall was successful with a similar attempt.

The remainder of the first-half saw the game decend into a forward battle with only occasional flourishes of skill.

West Park were unlucky not to cross the tryline on two occasions when the ball was spun down the blindside.

The first chance went begging when Jason Whitehead was forced to kick and the ball went into touch and the second occasion saw prop Craig Hardy break from a scrum inside the visitor's half and race away, only for the final pass to go to ground when the line was open.

Indifferent refereeing decisions also caused frustration for both sides and as the interval approached, a second penalty from Hill gave the visitors a 6-3 half-time lead.

West Park hit back from the re-start and it wasn't long before they were breaking down the blindside again.

A slick handling move started by centre Bob Collins saw the ball spun across the back line and Jason Whitehead was able to outpace the cover defence to score.

Hall added the conversion to give Park the lead for the first time in the game at 10-6.

Chester's forwards continued to pressure the home side's pack but West Park's scrambling defence was superb and they were able to break down every piece of attacking rugby from the visitors.

A re-shuffle in the West Park line-up saw Andy Knapton come on and he added impetus to the forwards.

The home side began to take control of the game, although the visitor's defence was able to keep them out for the next 20 minutes.

However, on 75 minutes, the issue was settled when top class interpassing through the backs once more freed the ball and fly-half Matt Stevens scored near the posts, Hall adding the conversion.

West Park left the best until last as, from the re-start, Eugene Grimes received the ball 10 metres inside his own half.

A dummy from Grimes saw him charging into the visitor's half, great backing up and passing from four of his pack colleagues - proving they could handle as well as the Park backs - resulted in skipper Howard Greenwood taking the final pass to score under the posts. Hall's third conversion gave Park the game.

This was an excellent performance by West Park, who travel to Halifax to play Old Brodleians in the third round of the NPI Cup.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.