West Park RFC 20 Ruskin Park 18.

This eagerly awaited local derby proved to be a fractious affair, with rivalry often getting the better of entertaining rugby, resulting in a total of three yellow cards and one red card to the visitors, and a further yellow card to the home side for retaliation.

The visitors opened brightly and Adam Fogerty converted a penalty within the first few minutes, but the home side shortly afterwards drew level with a penalty of their own from Warren Hunt.

Ruskin Park were content to let their forwards have most of the ball and West Park were pinned back in their own half for much of the time, but a breakout by the home side from a scrum saw the ball pass through several pairs of hands allowing winger Matt Savage to score wide out, the attempted conversion from Hunt hitting the post.

The visitors continuing intimidating tactics were however neither successful nor helpful as at one point they were down to only 12 players, but they nevertheless held out and indeed through a further successful penalty from Fogerty managed to reach half time only two points in arrears.

The second half again started as a forwards battle, and after converting another penalty Ruskin Park at last brought their back division into play resulting in a sweeping 50 yard move enabling a fine try wide out which was however not able to be converted.

The visitors took confidence from their lead , and fielding a poor kick out of defence were able to advance up field through a series of forward drives to score a further try which when converted gave them a 10pts lead going into the final quarter of the game.

West Park however showed a gritty resolve in taking the game to the visitors, and an excellent cross field move from a scrum saw Hunt cleverly join the line to crash over for a try which he then converted, to bring the deficit down to 3pts. Some resolute tackling from both sides kept further scores at bay, but West Park’s superior attacking skills eventually told, and an excellent cross field move involving backs Dickenson and Savage saw Holland on hand to go over in the corner within minutes of the end of a game and seal another win to leave them in third place in the league.

Next week the 1st XV travel to Tyldesley before entertaining league leaders Warrington at Red Rocks the week after (26th Jan).

Broughton Park 3rd XV 17 West Park 2nd XV 17: A last minute try by Charlie Bate salvaged a draw for West Park who had dominated the first quarter of the game and had taken the lead with a smart try by Ryan McPaul.

However possession from a series of penalties allowed the home side to get back in the game, and their pick and go tactics paid dividends scoring tries either side of half time .

West Park however produced a barnstorming effort in the dying minutes of the game resulting in tries for McPaul and Bate, the conversion for final try passing just to the side of the posts allowing the spoils to be shared and honours even.

Next week the 2nd XV entertain Northwich at Red Rocks kick off 2.15pm West Park 3rd XV 10 Hoylake 3rd XV 55.