IN this years Holden Cup competition Leigh Sportsman Harriers were drawn away against a high-flying Parkside Golborne team in a thrilling semi-final match which was full of incident.

The Harriers started well and were the first to score with a penalty slotted over by Chris Dootson.

The game was only 10 minutes old when Paul Wilcock added to the score, latching on to a good flat pass to score out wide. Minutes later Stuart Pilkington raced 60 yards down the touchline leaving the defence in his wake and scoring right in the corner.

By this time the Harriers were well on top of their game and all their hard work in training was paying off. Good yards down the centre of the field by Paul Hayes and Dave Parr set up the perfect position for prop Mick Leech to storm over for another try. It wasn't long after when the hard working Paul Sanderson skipped round the defence to score a well deserved try bringing the half to a close with Harriers 18-2 in front.

The second half didn't go as expected for the Harriers and the Golborne side running down the slope gradually clawed their way back into the game with some very good tries and a couple of penalty goals.

Leigh replied with a converted try to keep the lead but the Golborne team never gave up and kept to their game plan, scoring more points and eventually taking the lead 28-24 with only 15 minutes to go.

With the Harriers down to 11 men it seemed that all the effort in the first half was for nothing. However, the never say die attitude of this Harriers side brought them back into the game with the try of the match when second rower Craig Fairclough kicked a loose ball ahead and raced 50 yards to outpace the chasing defence and score near the posts. The conversion put the Harriers in front.

Not to be outdone the Golborne side raced downfield and were awarded a penalty which was duly converted to level the scores at 30-30.

With extra time looming Harriers got only their third penalty of the match which was kicked to inch them into the lead. With seconds to go Golborne attempted a short restart but the ball went directly into touch. Up stepped Paul Wilcock to take the penalty from the half way line, calmly slotting the ball between the posts to gave Leigh Harriers a well deserved win by 34-30.