Report by Stuart Vernon, pictures by Tony North

While the thaw came too late to prevent the Vale of Lune’s North One West fixture at Kirkby Lonsdale being postponed, the second team’s Conference B game went ahead on soft to heavy conditions underfoot at Powder House Lane.
Overshadowing a tight contest was an injury sustained to Birkenhead Park player, John Francis, in the eleventh minute. Referee Damien Hamilton stopped play immediately as the player went down having heard the sickening crack of bone. As a precaution, and because of the nature of the injuries, which turned out to be a fractured tibia and fibula plus a broken ankle, it was decided not to move the player, who remained in remarkably high spirits despite a lengthy delay, until the ambulance arrived.
All at the Vale of Lune wish John a swift and speedy recovery.
The players returned to the changing rooms while the Crem pitch was prepared where the game was switched to for the rest of the first half. At half time the game resumed on the main pitch with the scores level at twelve all.
All this toing and froing, plus an extended break in the action severely disrupted the pattern of the game as did an increasingly strong cold wind which blew throughout the second half into the home side’s faces.
Despite suffering their second Conference B defeat of the season the Vale ended the day sharing top spot in the table with their opponents on point’s difference, but overall it was a rather edgy, unconvincing performance from the Vale who appeared to have suffered the most from the disruptions.
There were a number of individual grafting performances from Alex Morrison, Ben Charnley, Phil Watson, Isaac Turton and Dan Rainford in a pack that came under increasing pressure in the second half. In the backs scrum half Liam Powers beavered away around the fringes, Jamie Antcliffe produced a number of powerful surges, Jimmy Birchall worked hard to create some space on his wing, while Sean Coulshed, at full back, remained calm and assured throughout, and winger Andy Muir scored two splendid tries.
Vale opened at a cracking pace and posted an early try when the elusive Andy Muir sprinted behind the posts for a try which Sean Coulshed converted. A Park penalty was missed before the game was halted; another pitch was made ready, and after a break of thirty seven minutes play resumed.
Within five minutes of the restart of play Andy Muir embarked on a jinking solo run for an unconverted try and the Vale appeared to have been the least affected side by the disruption. Gradually Park began to exercise a degree of control and with their stand off intelligently directing operations the game began to swing Park’s way.
In the twenty fourth minute a strangely dog-legged Vale defence conceded a converted try when Park’s number ten proved too elusive for the defenders. This was just the tonic the visitors needed and five minutes later, Park’s forwards who had started to turn the screw, engineered an unconverted try.
Back on the original pitch both sides quickly picked up the tempo but it was obvious that the Vale were finding it difficult to clear their lines in the teeth of a strengthening wind. They did attempt to run the ball out but it was hard to glide smoothly over a cloying surface and a number of attacks floundered or fell prey to a Park side that was growing in confidence in all areas and pressed the Vale deep in their own half for long periods.
Vale found it taxing to launch any cohesive attacks but in the sixty fifth minute Alex Morrison and Jamie Antcliffe spearheaded a surge into Park’s twenty two as for the first time in the half they appeared to be setting the agenda but crucial passes went to ground or the ball was knocked on. Park remained composed, the storm abated, and the Vale were driven back.
As the game moved into the final ten minutes Park sensed that a rare victory on Vale soil might be on the cards. Their forwards began to secure some leverage in the sets, the backs, despite the rapidly fading light, were not afraid to move the ball wide forcing the Vale to scramble.
The pressure started to increase on the home side. Kieran Doyle charged down a drop kick that looked destined to go over, the pack somehow managed to disrupt a five metre scrum sufficiently to deny Park a trundle over, but the Vale were definitely on the rack as the clock ticked down.
With three minute remaining, after a spot of ball juggling the ball from the visitors, the ball was hacked through by Park for an unconverted try that might not have been pretty to watch from a Vale point of view but had the Park players and coaching staff throwing their arms in the air and hollering, there might have been an extra crescendo had the conversion gone over, but it hit an upright and bounced out.
Vale are without a Conference fixture on Saturday but a home game has been arranged against Crewe and Nantwich firsts, who are in ninth place in South Lancashire/Cheshire Division One.
Congratulations to Fred Swarbrick for producing a splendid match programme.
Vale A: S Coulshed; J Birchall, O Simmons, J Antcliffe, A Muir; K Doyle, L Power; J O’Donnell, P Watson, A Morrison; B Charnley, D Rainford; T Cvijanovic, I Turton, S Foy. Replacements: R Bowen, C Quick, M Field.