Drop of pain for plucky Waterhead

WATERHEAD under-17s suffered an agonising 33-32 loss away at Haydock Warriors thanks to a late drop goal.

After taking an early 10-0 lead, the visitors found themselves under pressure and were 14-12 down at half-time.

A fast and exciting, nip-and-tuck second half ended with the one-pointer arriving five minutes from time, just too late for Waterhead — who lost Jack Mayall to a broken collar bone — to find a response.

Try scorers for Waterhead were Zac Massey, Sam Reynolds, Jordan Curtis, Anthony Mellor, Jordan Hanley (two). Luc Kinder kicked four conversions.

The club’s under-16s opened up their North-West Counties League premier division campaign by taking a point from a clash at last year’s runners-up Wigan St Patrick’s in a 10-10 draw.

Both teams started well with defences on top, before the home side opened up a 8-0 lead by half-time.

Waterhead responded through a fine Danny Yates try, converted by Ben Whitehead, before another flowing move with 10 minutes left saw Kyle Mayall go over at the corner.

With a minute left, a St Pats penalty in front of the posts ensured the honours were shared.




A PHYSICAL but inventive Moss Bank Bulldogs side defeated Saddleworth Rangers under-16s 36-14 away from home as the new North-West Counties League season got up and running.

A sickness bug had affected Rangers in the build-up to the game but the team still played a full part and special mention goes to the Joy twins, Andy and Ricky, who put in plenty of hard work in the middle of the field.

Rangers scored three tries in total, through Dan Mulqueen, Christian Johnson and John Deakin, with Joe Boniface converting once.

The under-15s put on a strong show away at Chorley Panthers and came out with a 36-12 victory.

The home side opened up with a converted try but Lewis Galbraith replied between the posts, Ben White — who finished with six conversions from as many attempts — levelling.

White then went over himself and Ryan Maneely took the ball half the length of the field to make the half-time score 18-6 to Saddleworth.

Chorley reduced the arrears with a converted try before man-of-the-match Danny Richardson claimed a brilliant second-half hat-trick.

Joseph Harrison-Brown collected his second successive hat-trick as Rangers under-14s registered a resounding 34-6 win at Leigh Miners Rangers to continue their positive start to the season.

Tries from Cameron Robertson, Cameron Whitley, Dominic Elkin and Harrison-Brown handed Saddleworth a commanding 22-0 half-time lead.

Rangers rammed home their supremacy further as Harrison-Brown added two more tries. Dominic D’Adamo (two) and Cameron Matthews (three) kicked the conversions.


Other scores and scorers are —

UNDER-12s: Shevington 10, Saddleworth Rangers 18 (Tries: Dan Holmes 2, Jacob Ford, Tom Brisk; Goal: Brisk).

UNDER-10s: Latchford Albion 20, Saddleworth Rangers 6 (Try: Matt Fletcher; Goal: Fletcher).

UNDER-NINES: Saddleworth Rangers (Tries: Bradley Jinks 3, Adam Howarth 2, Josh Jarwood 2, Ben Forster 2) beat Wigan St Patrick’s; Higginshaw Eagles three tries (Alfie Barker 2, Ben Corless), Shevington nine tries; Oldham St Anne’s seven tries (Alfie Baldwin, Asa France, Samuel Jewitt, Thomas Barnes, Luke Smith 3), Hindley four tries.


Defeat for tired Eagles

HIGGINSHAW Eagles under-15s suffered from travelling to Orrell St James with only 13 fit players and lost the game 42-4.

Despite being short on bodies, the Eagles crossed first through a fine Paddy Fitzsimmons effort and a big defensive push restricted the score to 18-4 at half-time, before fatigue took over.


THE good start to the season continued for Oldham St Anne’s under-11s, who won 34-12 at home against Newton Storm.

Tries for Saints came through Cameron Molloy, Anthony Wooley (two) Oliver Depetrillo, Owen Baldwin and a long-range effort from Regan Croft, while Joshua Fish was boy of the match.


PLEASE send all match reports, including age group, scores and full names of scorers, to mattchambers@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , to arrive by 5pm on Monday.