WEST Park secured a fine 12-5 win at Glossop in the final match of the season leaving them in joint fourth place in the South Lancs/Cheshire Division One and a very fitting send off to Chris Stabler who has been the Park coach for the past four years.

The match played in the most beautiful setting in the Derbyshire hills on a glorious sunny but windy day, the home side having that advantage of in the first half.

Despite the huge Glossop pack, Park were doing well in both scrum and line-outs, however the strong wind advantage kept them defending for most of the first half. Tremendous tackling from the back row of Loughnane, Whitty and Potter managed to keep Glossop at bay.

In spite of the excellent defensive effort eventually after 25 minutes a Glossop scrum close to the Park line saw the number 8 carry the ball forward and a second surge allowed their blind side wing forward to crash over for the opening try which went unconverted.

With half time approaching Park spurned the opportunity of a penalty in front of the Glossop posts in one of the rare forays into the opposition half. Half time 5-0 to Glossop

The second half with the wind now in their backs Park took full advantage, and after sustained pressure and some excellent play by the Park backs they managed to get left wing Ollie Berry over for a try in the corner, which went unconverted bringing the scores level at 5-5.

Park were now starting to open up the opposition with some very good play from the threequarters with Matt Cozens and the very impressive Matt Savage at full back very prominent.

The winning try saw Man of the Match Park second row Lewis Harris make a fantastic break through a crowd of Glossop players. He handed on to Matt Savage who in turn found captain Rob Morley in support, the final pass going to Danny Green to score a great try which was magnificently converted by Warren Hunt taking the score to 5-12.

Glossop were not finished yet, they stormed back into the Park half and despite their best efforts which saw them being held up over the Park line on a couple of occasions, the Park defence held firm for a fantastic win.

Other scores:

West Park 2nd 20 Preston Grasshoppers 3rd 33.

Southport 3rd 31 West Park 3rd 10.