cultech 24 - bamber bridge 32 cracking day for rugby ,very tough game very physical the home team went down to 12 after 1 of there lads started throwing punches ,cultech kept going all day but ran out of steam and had a few injuries 7 is a very good player for them,but in the end our fitness told ,we got sloppy at the end and gifted them 2 trys with 4 min to go as we switched not happy about mad game look closer,good luck for the rest of the season and your cup final

Wigan St Pats 12 - 46 Hindpool

On an absolutely baking day in Wigan we managed to come away with a very convincing win and probably the best performance away from home I have seen from a Hindpool team. In the first half we got of to a flyer, going in for two try's in the first 10 minutes to take a lead that we would never surrender. After this St Pats came into the game off the back of a few errors and a lot of debatable decisions from the referee, at one point we defended 8 sets on our line off the back of penalties before eventually conceding. Given good field position those lads can really play rugby and their movement is very good. We traded try's going in at the break 12-18.
The 2nd Half performance from us was outstanding. Very few errors, great organistation and controlled the game both in attack and defence. With us having the majority of posession Pats really started to fatigue in the heat. We crossed the line 8 times in the second half, with 3 being ruled out (2 wrongly in our opinion) but luckily this had no bearing on the game, winning the 2nd half 28-0. Credit to them though as they never threw in the towel and pressed us all game. 3, 6 & 7 for them were outstanding throughout!
Good luck to Pats for the rest of the season, great bunch of lads and I hope they can get a few of their problems with lads not training sorted as they could be a real force with the right commitment.

Next up is another tough fixture at home vs Culcheth. First time the two teams will have met and no doubt will be a cracking game looking at their results this season.

Yet another game runined by a referee just not up to the job........ there are 34 players out there each week putting their bodies on the line, they deserve a man in the middle who can control a game, keep it flowing and not contsantly frustrate the players with poor descision making, which then sees their testosterone fuelled frustrations take over.

eagle 1 you cnt blame a ref every time you get beat your team push the limits you are a good team but when your team throws punches and so many high shots you get punished, iv no idea what happened at hindpool but I wouldn't like to be a ref

haydock 36-18 bamber bridge was a very tough and hard game of rugby played in the right way a couple of slack moments cost us very happy with how the team played esp with the amount of players missing,we got a lot of praise after the game ,was so hot and played at high pace but really enjoyed it

Not blaming the ref for our lose, just saying the standard of the refs this season is well below par...... all players in this division deserve bettter, as you say you don't know what went on at Hindpool, but I believe Portico had a similar experience with the same ref on their visit up north.

The ref was very poor for both sides and Hindpool were far from happy with him. The try that you had disallowed I'm told should have been awarded but we also had a try disallowed straight after which should have stood it was a farcical few minutes, its swings and roundabouts. It was your poor discipline that cost you in the end.
Your coach spent more time time on the pitch than most the players and at 1 point he was taking you off the pitch it was embarrassing to watch.
The Portico game was totally different they were threatening the ref from the start of the game, every other tackle was high and how they lasted an hour before getting someone sent off is anyone's guess. They play a very physical game and its no wonder that from time to time the line is crossed but i would say their approach to games wins them more than ut loses them so why change. It's easy to blame the ref when you get beat but teams including us should look closer to home for the real reason.

At no stage am I blaming the ref for our lose, the point that I'm making is that a strong referee would lead to the sort of game all teams deserve, he WAS poor for both sides.
I totally agree our discipline let us down, it has been a frustrating season and our lads need to learn to just get on with the game, but alot of these frustrations have been brought about by below standard refereeing.
This season we have seen a player sent off for stamping, when the 'victim' of the said stamp told the ref that it hadn't happened,the ref of this game admitted it was one of the worse games he'd had, a game abandoned then reinstated, an opposition player sent off and then brought back from the changing rooms and told he could play again, a discipine report submitted saying a player was sent off in 2nd minute when he was actually on the field and scored in the 14t, a ref who told us he didn't mind a few high tackles, after all this isnt football and is what the spectators want to see
The best ref we had this season was away against Portico, who as you say play a very physical game and can be verbally intimidating, but this ref controlled the game and we played a very disciplined game.
We need the man in the middle, without him there is'nt a game, all players have to respect this man, but he also has to have respect for the 26 men on the field and the efforts that they are putting into the game.

Agree with you there the ref had a poor game and I'm sure he knows this. Our lads really weren't happy and when the winning team is complaining then that says a lot to me.
The games between Bridge, Hindpool, Portico, Eagles and Wildboars are all going to be pretty close there is little to chose between the sides and games between those deserve to have decent refs. The guy on Saturday would have been helped a lot if he had touch judges and I cant see why they couldn't be appointed as there weren't many games on in Barrow.

Who was the referee shawy?

I cnt say touch judges do help we had 2 on sat and the ref didn't use them what so ever , the ref sat admit to us after the game he mad 2 mistakes and said sorry to us but they cost us 12 points,it is hard to be a ref and with 26 lads on the pitch trying to control the game, I think at some point the ref are going make mistakes and I know its crap when it affects your team but I think every team has had bad desicons,
what players have stood out for you this year
hindpools 1 is good
culthech 7 is a good player
pats had a tough prop
wildboars 6 is a good player

just found out the dates for the play offs are 21st sept and the final is on the 28th both semi and final will be at neutral grounds as well

Referee was Steve Parkin
We won't be available to play on the 28th Sept so that might mean we opt out the play offs if we finish amongst it.
Jacko is very dangerous for you and your pretty useful yourself. Also your small prop runs all day
Jonny Cunningham the prop at Accy is a useful player, wouldn't mind him back at Hindpool.

Wigan st pats have lets us down for tomorrow which is disappointing, we haven't had a league game since 15/06 which isn't great. Had a similar situation last year where we Didnt have a league game for two months. I know with summer rugby numbers are bound to be lower due to other comitments but it's getting beyond a joke now.

I know it's easy to critise and offer no solutions but I don't know what the way forward is for clubs/league, going back to winter wouldn't work for me. In every game I have played in I have enjoyed and I think the NWML are doing everything they can. Is it down to individual clubs.

We have had what 2/3 teams decide they wanted to drop down leagues this season, surley that's down to clubs being honest with themselves at the start of the season.

Was discussed at the league meeting and that was my view then - it's the responsibility of clubs to be honest at start of year; not the 'fault' of summer. That's been the big issue in Div 3.

Apart from Hindley A, Div 4 seems to have been the most stable division outside Prem!

Accrington 14-bamber bridge 24 not a very good performance from us did not do the basic well and just played a terrible game, take nothing away from Accrington the pushed us all the way and was a very tough game, the ref was unfit and I bet we gave away 20 plus pens compared to accys very few pens, but we got 2 points and that is all that matters

Good win by Hindpool, in what was a close game until we lost the plot and forgot how to defend and Hindpool, rightly took full advantage of this!

Culcheth Eagles 22 - 28 Hindpool Tigers

What a game of rugby league this was. Pressure changing hands throughout the game and the lead changing hands four times. Don't know how the Culcheth supporters found it but ours said it was one of the best games of rugby they have watched in years.

We travelled with two men light but showed desire and heart to come back and take the win with the last play of the game after being 22-10 down with 7 minutes to go. I bet there are a lot of sore bodies after this game (I know mine is). This has to be out best victory of the year against a very good, physical and skillful rugby team. Good Luck for the rest of your season.

3 home games left for us now in our quest to secure 2nd place in the league table after Bamber Bridge secured 1st place with their victory this weekend.

On that note I would like to Congratulate Bamber Bridge on behalf of everyone at Hindpool on winning the league and being crowned Champions 2013!

Bamber Bridge 38 - 22 Boars.

Thanks to Bamber bridge enjoyed the game at weekend. Knew we would struggle earlier on in the week with numbers with lads on holiday and working/called in work on the day, but we tried to put that behind us and went down with 13 lads (one lad was coming at half time) our 51 year old water carrier even got a run out with a full 80 on the wing which he was made up about haha.

Bamber bridge went two tries up early on with the big centre being pretty much the centre of them, thought it was going to be one of them days, but we woke up then and started to play a bit of rugby and went in at half time pretty even. One of our lads had to come off at half time, and with our luck this weekend the lad who was coming at ht got stuck in work) Second Half started pretty much the same as the first few quick tries for bamber bridge, we come back with a few consolation tries but they was comfortable seeing out the game. Thought their big blonde forward had a great game sat, he is a big lad and runs and tackles all day, it isnt half a task in itself to get him down, also the fullback played well and IMO was MOM.

Well done to them and i think that result wins them the league so congrats for that lads, well deserved.

we have not won the league yet lads we still have portico and now we have pats at home when the league said we had the points but I do not know when we are going play them as they have games all the way up to the play offs and we have no free weeks now
sats game very strange 1 from us like the week before at Accrington we set of like a house on fire then just got lazy and im not sure if the players heads where elsewhere , massive respect to wild boars who came with a depleted team and lost a few to injuries in the game the little 7 caused no ends of problems and you prop was a very good runner , there is little to choose between all the top 5 teams and we have had some really good games hindpool have been on an awesome run 13 games I think that is some going well done to you lads portico are winning every week and cultech who have had a few defeats but if in the play offs are going be very strong well done to all the teams this year and good luck for rest of the season

If its right that as of this week they are losing players to Golbourne for the winter season then I don't think Culcheth will make the play offs. I think Wild Boars will pip them for 4th.
Culcheth are a decent side, cant see why those players would want to go play in the winter league it was a shambles last year, even worse than the 1st summer season.

Good win for Culcheth yesterday. I didn't expect them to win there as its not an easy place to get a result so fair play to them

It was a good game, very equally matched in attack, think our defence just edged it for us, kept Wild Boar out for repeat sets in our own 20 on several occassions.

Interesting few weeks coming up. Bamber Bridge, Hindpool & Portico have everything to play for. Cant see Brig slipping up though. Hopefully the league will see sense and move us all up

Accrington have cried off so guess that puts us top of the league for at least the next 18 hours.

Massive game tomorrow. Looking forward to a battle down here