Alker is St Pat’s cup hero as they trail until dying moments

West Bowling suffered BARLA National Cup heartbreak as they were beaten by a try in the dying seconds of the third-round tie against Wigan St Patrick’s.

Bowling were heading for a deserved victory after a pulsating match when they were hit by a sucker punch from man of the match Mel Alker.

As the clock ticked down, impressive hooker Tony Atherton broke the hosts’ defensive line before slipping a pass to Alker, who raced in under the posts.

It was hard to swallow for Bowling, who started the game like a house on fire and were clearly up for the challenge.

They were ahead after just four minutes when a sweeping right-to-left move allowed winger Damian Smith to crash over in the corner. Loose forward Jonny Summers was unable to convert but Bowling had a 4-0 lead.

St Patrick’s looked set to draw level as Alker found himself clear, only for Smith to pull off a fantastic cover tackle to deny him.

The game was end to end and stand-off Elliot Cousens could have extended Bowling’s lead midway through the first half but was pulled back after an earlier forward pass.

With the half-time whistle approaching, a loose pass by Cousens was pounced on by Atherton but, with players in support, his pass went astray to leave Bowling breathing a sigh of relief.

Bowling opened the second half just as they had the first with plenty of passion and industry.

A big hit from second-row forward Simon Owen forced a knock-on from St Pat’s and, from the resulting play, centre Trevor Stead powered over out wide.

Scrum half Steve Illingworth struck a wonder kick from the touch line and Bowling were flying at 10-0.

But this second try fired up St Pat’s and, after some concerted pressure, Alker received a face ball to dive over between the sticks. Stand-off Ryan Baxter duly converted to put the visitors right back in it at 10-6.

Bowling roared back and a bit of luck saw them extend their lead when St Pat’s attempted an offload only for the pass to land in the arms of winger Adam Crompton, who sprinted 50 yards to score. Illingworth tagged on the extras for a 16-6 lead.

St Pat’s struck back on the hour when winger John O’Donnell made a break, chipped over an onrushing defender for Atherton to collect and score. Baxter’s subsequent conversion pegged Bowling back to 16-12.

A Bowling penalty for holding down on 72 minutes gave Illingworth a simple kick to ease them six points in front but St Pat’s again fought back.

A neat kick through by Baxter was collected by Alker, who gratefully accepted the four-pointer. Amazingly though, Baxter missed the kick that would have levelled the scores and it looked to be Bowling’s day.

But St Pat’s were awarded a penalty from the restart for a head-high challenge, leaving Alker to capitalise with a try and end brave Bowling’s chance of progressing to round four.