THIS was a welcome and hard-earned win for Finch as they battle to beat relegation from the North West Counties League Division One.

There was little between the sides in the opening quarter, with Latchford taking the lead with a penalty on 10 minutes and Finch replying shortly afterwards with a similar effort by Adam Walsh.

As half-time approached though Finch began to get on top up front with Danny Flynn and Graham Sams punching holes in the visitors' defence.

And they took the lead when second-row Ian Derbyshire's outrageous dummy and break set up a try under the posts for scrum-half Chris Ratcliffe. Walsh converted.

With Paul Hitchen and Richard Twist tackling everything that moved Finch increased their lead when centre Chris Mason put Walsh over in the corner for a try.

Just before the break the Latchford stand-off scored a try and Walsh kicked a penalty for Finch to make it 14-6 at half time.

Latchford narrowed the deficit to two points after the interval with a converted try.

Finch, though restored their eight-point cushion when Lee Burke scattered the visitors' defence to power in for a try converted by Walsh.

Another penalty by Walsh looked to have made the game safe for the home men but Latchford grabbed a converted try near the end to set up a nail-biting finish.

The Land Recovery man-of-the-match for Finch went to the versatile Kevin Parylo with Twist and Mason in contention.

Bamber B 18 Haydock A 16

HAYDOCK second string let a 12-point lead slip as they went down by just two points for their third time this season.

The Yickers got off to a great start with good work by stand-off Neil Wade creating tries for Ste Williams and flying winger John Bradbury. Wade converted both.

On the half-hour mark though slack marking allowed the Bamber Bridge hooker to go over from acting half-back to leave the half-time score at 12-6 to the visitors.

After the break, home side levelled with another try from acting half and then took the lead with a third converted try from a fumbled cross-field kick.

Haydock's Paul Grimes barged over, but Wade was unable to add the conversion