West Bowling 10, Normanton Knights 16

Veteran war horse Phil Chappell came off the bench to inspire an ultimately unsuccessful West Bowling fightback in their National Conference Division One clash with Normanton Knights at Bankfoot Oval.

Bowling made what is now a habitual start to all their games this season when they fell behind straight from the kick-off.

Knights stand-off Adam Thaler sucked in the home defence and sent a sharp pass to centre John Hodgson, who scampered over.

A long pass on the deck was then collected by wingman Andy Greaves, who raced in at the corner to put West’s 8-0 behind before they had even touched the ball.

With the home pack taking a battering, it was time for the cavalry to arrive in the shape of belligerent prop forward Chappell, who immediately took charge of the situation with a number of powerful drives.

Scrum half Elliott Cousins put a raking grubber behind the visitors’ line and then stepped up to slot over a penalty when they strayed offside from the drop-out under the posts.

Wingman Adam Crompton was denied what looked to be a valid penalty try when he was taken off the ball in the act of touching down but it was the Knights who edged further in front when full back Mick Butterfield made the extra man to burrow over.

Scrum half Mick Hill added his first conversion before Bowling’s sustained pressure was finally rewarded when wingman Damian Smith collected a clever overhead pass from packman Sha Basha to outpace the Normanton cover to dive over in the corner.

With the interval score at 14-6, it was vital for Bowling to strike first in the second half and they duly obliged by bombarding the Knights line straight from the restart.

Hooker Steve Illingworth spotted a gap on the blind side and shipped the ball to Smith, who roared in for his brace.

Substitute prop Ben Kelly was held up following his introduction to the fray and his permutation with the towering figure of Chappell left the visitors hanging on grimly.

This they did, to their credit, very effectively and when they manoeuvred up-field they suckered Bowling into conceding a penalty which took them to a match-winning total.

West’s gave their all in the final ten minutes, with loose forward Aaron Chappell following his father’s example, but the Knights very effectively shut up shop to earn the spoils.