Hoylake cement top place

Hoylake cement top place. 39 - 7

Hoylake 2nd xv secured their place at the top of the Merseyside Merit Table this weekend with a comfortable win over table-top rivals Wirral.
Despite being a couple of key players short Hoylake fielded a strong side captained by Al Parkinson to compete with their fellow high flyers, and started strong.
Multiple phases of forward play combined with confident backs running lines soon put the home side on the front foot and after 3 minutes Simon Robinson crossed the white to score the first try, which he converted himself.
Taking the restart Hoylake kept the ball in the Wirral half and despite good tackling from the visitors, Hoylake were on the run again , and their 2nd try came after Al Robinson linked with Al Parkinson who made the try his. 6 minutes in 12-0.

Wirral were not lying down though and their strong tackling, and tight play, kept Hoylake in their own half for a good while. Until Wirral’s No 6 was sin binned for trying to pull Hoylake’s winger, Kev “side-show” Jones, out of a ruck by his nostrils. This certainly took the wind out of the vistor’s sails for a while but Hoylake could not capitalise on the extra man advantage, as the game went a little flat for a good quarter of an hour. Hoylake’s back row were everywhere though, Dan Gleeson’s charges, the presence of The Minks, and , playing 2nd Row this day, James Edwards, at the breakdowns; the scores just had to come at some time. This time it was a blistering run and quality finish from John Howells to get the scoreboard ticking over again, the windy conditions prevented the conversion being added.
Next on the sheet was Jay Baldock, diving between the sticks just after the ½ hour and Si Robinson converting to make what would be the half time score at 24-0.

Knowing their opposition would not give in Hoylake were determined to start the second half the same way as they did in the 1st . However it took nearly 15 mins for Kev Jones to get his first of 2 for the day, and not before brother Phil had to be replaced at scrum half with a suspected broken hand. The flow of the game had become severely stunted by continuous whistle blowing, partially as a result of poor handling, which did nothing for either side, and a breakaway from the Wirral scrum half gave them their only points of the game, but both Al Parkinson and Kev Jones scored another try each late in the game to notch the score up a bit to compensate for this.

Final score Hoylake 39 Wirral 7

Next week a non league visit from Prenton.