West Bowling 24 Allerton Bywater 20

OLLIE Bartle scored two crucial tries as Premier Division outfit West Bowling booked a place in the PRESIDENTS CUP final after a close encounter against Allerton Bywater at Emsleys Rec.

Bowling made a disastrous start when stand-off Will Milner waltzed through their defence on a weaving run to send centre Danny Gill over under the posts, leaving scrum half Danny Lazenby to tag on the extras.

It was abundantly clear that the Castleford-based Championship Division visitors were up for the task when Gill was denied his chance of a brace due to a forward pass.

Wests then clawed their way back into the tie on 20 minutes when second-rower Bartle stormed over from a delayed pass by stand-off Max Trueman following a penalty for holding down in the tackle.

Allerton replied immediately through Milner, who sent second-row forward Nick Baldwin on a solo run to the chalk to restore their six-point advantage.

Bowling needed some inspiration and it came from hooker Joe Lumb, who spotted a gap to burrow over from the ruck soon after, followed by a peach of a try from Trueman.

He interacted in fine style with Bartle to plant the ball under the sticks and scrum half Ben Heald made sure of the extras for a 14-10 half-time lead.

Allerton had to resort to lying on in the tackle at every available opportunity on the restart to slow down Wests’ superior momentum and they received a huge bonus when a wild speculative Bowling pass was intercepted by loose forward Rob Kirk, who sprinted a full 80 metres to the chalk to level the score at 14-14.

A scything angled run from second-row forward Jason Marshall converted by Heald restored the home advantage but they could not shake off the dogged visitors.

Allerton’s star man Milner once again weaved his magic to batter down the home defence for a converted touchdown to level matters once again at 20-20 with eight minutes to go.

The joyous Allerton celebrations were short lived, however, when Bowling’s long raking kick-off was dropped close to their try line and Wests worked the ball to the blind side from the resulting scrum to allow Bartle the chance to use his strength and determination to crash over for the winner.

Bowling will meet Doncaster Toll Bar in the final at Batley Bulldogs on Monday, May 4.