Heysham Atoms 4 - Ashton Bears 66

Heysham Atoms were taught a painful lesson in attacking rugby on Saturday, being put to the sword by a formidable Ashton Bears outfit.

After a poor start to the season which saw the Atoms lose their first 9 games, the Atoms have quietly built in confidence to register 9 victories in the latter part of the season.

The Atoms should have entered the game with a quiet self-belief that their opponents, just a few places above them in the fiercely contested North West Counties Division 2, could be accounted for.

However, it was not to be.

A fixture clash with the University team ensured the Atoms' influential stand off Louis Mills was unavailable, and when his deputy Andy Helme was concussed in the early stages of the match, the home team were left without a recognised player in this significant position.

But even considering the adverse circumstances, the Atoms were still fielding a very strong line up across the park, and the lack of a recognised stand off was no excuse for the missed tackles and lack lustre display that followed.

The impressive Ashton team started well with a sweeping try down the left flank before the Atoms had even touched the ball. The Ashton standoff began to orchestrate the show with good link play and impressive pace.

With nothing to play for for the Wigan side other than a higher mid-table placing, one might have expected a below-par performance. Further well worked trys soon eliminated such thoughts.

At 20-nil down with less than 20 minutes gone, the Atoms players were once again under their own posts giving each other searching looks. It was down to coach Dave Crow to spell out to the players what kind of score was on the cards if the disastrous start continued.

Changes were called for, with Rob Shaw and Liam Hall brought on as part of the coach's rotation policy in the forwards. The introduction of fresh legs in the forwards did little to halt the Ashton onslaught with more tries posted in impressive fashion.

A nasty collision with team-mate Bryan Cambidge left veteran standoff Andy Helme with concussion and a gaping wound to the head. The resulting halt in the proceedings as Helme was blood binned and despatched to Hospital proved to be the most fruitful 5 minutes of the afternoon from the Atoms' point of view.

Coach Dave Crow was forced to bring Neil Walker back onto the pitch at hooker, with the versatile Andy Aldren moving to the troublesome standoff position.

After the half-time break, the Atoms thankfully showed some improvement, the tide was stemmed and some valuable possession was retained. Dave McVernon, one of the few Atoms players to perform with any credit, forced his way over to prevent the embarrassment of a complete whitewash.

Pyrah replaced Garnett on the wing and contributed some much needed pace into the proceedings, but at this stage of the game no amount of fresh legs and enthusiasm was going to change the outcome.

The work-hungry Bryan Cambidge again proved his value to the cause with a tenacious display at loose forward, and picked up some more valuable man of the match points in the process.

However, it was the Ashton team that deservedly finished the stronger, adding another brace of tries to complete the rout.

Atoms: Andrew Raines, Russell Birkett, Alex Batson, Andy Garnett, Andy Helme, Keith Hartlebury, , Neil Walker, Andy Aldren, Gavin Helliwell, Mark Allen, Bryan Cambidge. Res: Rob Shaw, Liam Hall, Chris Helme, Si Ledwick, Joe Pyrah