Leek show powers of recovery to defeat Manchester, while it's a tense home success for Bach

LEEK inched to a 29-26 home victory over Manchester in Regional One North West.

- Chris Travers

The game kicked off in the drizzle which persisted most of the afternoon and Leek was against the wind too, first half, as Manchester came out of the blocks to stun the Moorlanders with two early converted tries.

The first on six minutes after a clearance kick only found the speedy left wing who proceeded to dance his way around all would be tacklers to show a clean pair of heels to the posts. The conversion was good, and the visitors led 0-7.

Four minutes later and the lead doubled after a lineout in midfield then led to good phases and support and with swift continuity the flanker scored by the posts. The conversion was good, and it was 0-14.

Leek needed to retain some possession and find a way to dent the Manchester defence and on 17 minutes, Leek won a penalty at the first scrum and the kick for the lineout was 10 metres from the visitors' line on the left.

Billy Kidd caught the excellent Ed Cheadle throw, a consistent theme all afternoon, and the intelligent maul, keeping the ball safe and making swift yardage allowed Tom Hayes to crash over for Leek's first try. Scott Rawlings converted and Leek was in the game at 7-14.