National League Three North: Kendal 22 Cleckheaton 7

CLECKHEATON played well at times in Cumbria but the home side ultimately proved too strong.

Kendal got on the scoreboard first after 20 minutes where the teams largely exchanged tackles in the middle of the park.

The deadlock was broken when Kendal were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks and Chris Park put the home side 3-0 in front.

Cleck responded well and took the game to Kendal, and when a ball went loose in Kendal's 22, Josh Hall dribbled through like a seasoned football player and dived on it in the in-goal area, Ronan Evans' conversion putting Cleckheaton 7-3 up.

With the final play of the first half, Kendal had a line-out five metres  from Cleckheaton's whitewash and drove the ball over for Robbie Collinson to get the touchdown.

With Kendal leading 8-7 at the interval, Cleckheaton suffered yellow cards either side of the interval, firstly to Hall and secondly to skipper Richard Piper.

The hosts took advantage and scored again via Joe Robinson, Park's conversion making it 15-7.

Cleckheaton's kicking game was poor at times and never really turned Kendal around and, to make matters worse, Hall was shown a red card inside the final ten minutes for what seemed to be a pretty innocuous event.

Kendal advanced upfield and went in for the third time via Kris Bratton, who, like Robinson, last started a first-team game five years ago.

Park again added the conversion. to make the final score 22-7.