Kukri North West Counties Division 3
Heysham Atoms 18 points
Vs
Spring View 36 points

The Atoms penultimate league game of the season saw them take a changed side down to Wigan to pitch themselves against top four outfit Spring View on a bone hard playing surface. Although down on numbers the Atoms had to cope with only 2 subs and was not helped by the loss of centre Craig Dixon who had to leave the field of play after only fifteen minutes with a badly gashed head. Having everything stacked against them the Atoms turned in a spirited performance only running out of steam in the second half after an excellent first forty minutes.

The Atoms started in positive fashion scoring in the first 5 minutes of play after stand-in hooker Mark Walker had spotted a weakness on the narrow side of the ruck. Al Crookall made a clean break on the supporting Billy Livingstone took the scoring pass sprinting 40 yards to cross the try line Livingstone added the extras giving the Atoms a 6 nil lead.

The Atoms completed their early sets but stand off Neil Walker was caught in possesion on the last tackle when no Atoms player blocked their kicker. From the resulting scrum the Atoms line was put under pressure and some weak defending let in Springviews centre with relative ease. The Atoms responded by tightening up their defense with Liam Hall and Dave Mcvernon making some telling hits. The Atoms had to defend their line on a number of occasions as Springviews scrum half favoured his left hand attack close to the popular side.

Martin Pike had to fill in on the wing and he was tested early on with some high kicks that he fielded well under pressure. Prop forward Chris Helme was putting himself about making a number of tackles continuing his good form from the mid week gane against Ulverston.

The Atoms regained the lead after Billy Livingstone intercepted a pass 10 metres from his own line and sprinted the remaining 90 metres out pacing the cover for his 23rd try of the season. As with the first try the Atoms lead was not to last long as Springview hit back with a neat handling movement passing from left to right and scoring in the corner, excellently converted by their impressive kicker.

Graham Lacey was soon in the action taking a high shot and receiving treatment as the target area for the tackles increased towards head height. This was to be an area of concern throughout the match as the referee failed to be consistant in his approach to tackling. As half time approached a good Neil Walker was chased hard by Stuart Lacey and Jake Harrison catching Springviews full back 5 metres from his own line The Atoms should have taken advantage of this good work but instead allowed Springview to come up field and score in the left hand corner. In trying to prevent the score Mark Walker was a judged to have tripped the try scorer and was given 10 mins in the sin bin on the resumption of the second half.

The Atoms kept Springview scoreless for the 10 mins they were down to 12 men but that extra work load took too much petrol out of the tank and the next 20 mins was where Springview took the game away from the Atoms. In this period The Atoms conceded 4 converted trys as they looked out on their feet and with an empty interchange bench. Tempers flared for not the first time in the gane and Springview were reduced to 12 men themselves as their second row was despatched to the sin bin for punching again the recipient was the unlucky Graham Lacey.

A number of penalties went the Atoms way and a final round of boxing led to both captains being given last warnings about their teams conduct. The Atoms responded better finishing the game as they had started it with a try directly from the scrum. Al Crookall had looked dangerous all afternoon with ball in hand and it was only fitting the he broke through two tackles to score to the right hand side of the posts.

Next week home league game versus Saddleworth Rangers from oldham kick off 230 all welcome

Portrait Pools.com Men of the Match:
Liam Hall
Dave McVernon
Billy Livingstone

Heysham Atoms: Stuart Lacey, Jake Harrison, Craig Dixon, Al Crookall, Martin Pike, Neil Walker, Billy Livingstone, Chris Helme, Mark Walker, Lee Harvey, Liam Hall, Dave Mcvernon, Andy Helme res Scott Needham, Graham Lacey