West Bowling's good work comes to nothing

WEST Bowling’s young guns gave Premier Division leaders Sharlston Rovers a real scare before falling to a late surge from the vastly experienced visitors at Emsleys Rec.

It looked like being a long afternoon for the Bowling faithful when Sharlston centre Ronan Dixon took a cut-out pass to score with ease in the corner but Glenn Barraclough’s boys hit back in style when teenage stand-off Max Trueman took an inside pass from loose forward Richard Lumb to break clear. He shook off two attempted high tackles to win the race to the chalk, leaving scrum half Ben Heald to add the extras.

West then increased their tally when they took advantage of a quick tap-and-run to work the ball out wide and whip the ball back in the opposite direction for wingman James Crabb to race in at the flag.

The speedy Trueman looked to have saved the day when he back-tracked to pull off a try-saving tackle on his opposing number Adam Jones, which was alas all to no avail when two suspicious-looking forward passes enabled Rovers wingman Josh Beecher to plant the ball out wide.

The visitors continued to show their class when Dixon hit the whitewash at pace for his second and they were fortunate in the extreme when the referee missed a clear knock-on prior to substitute forward Jim Davies barging over for an 18-10 advantage.

Bowling regrouped under the direction of hooker Joe Lumb, who took control of the ruck to open up the narrowest of gaps to send wingman Karl Spring sprinting into the corner. Heald then landed a superb touchline conversion to put the game back in the melting pot at 18-16 at the break.

West’s went close on the restart when substitute Sha Basha saw his final difficult pass go to ground before Rovers full back Jack Kirmond produced a telling blow by collecting his own kick and chase and adding the conversion himself.

Bowling dug deep and were rewarded for their spirit when prop forward Nat Light broke the line to stretch out to score to leave them just four points adrift but tired home legs and a lack of ball possession gave Sharlston the momentum to turn on the gas with three touchdowns in the final quarter to see them home with a lop-sided scoreline at the conclusion.