Knutsford 59 Marple 2nd 14

KNUTSFORD strolled to a third consecutive win since promotion to North West Intermediate League Division Four South.

A 31-0 interval advantage laid the platform and an influx of fresh legs off the bench in the second half kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Chris Edmonds helped himself to a hat-trick of tries for a team bolstered by some returnees, including Jim Southall, Craig Robinson, Chris Perry and Jack Field.

Blues asserted their dominance from the opening exchanges.

Sam Cook was first to cross the whitewash, versatile forward Sam Dawson ran an excellent supporting line to add to Knutsford’s tally and Alex Malcolm was awarded a penalty try after his dart down the touchline was stopped by a high tackle.

At 19-0 down with less than 20 minutes gone Marple started to show some promise.

Knutsford, under pressure, conceded too many penalties and Dawson was handed a yellow card.

Blues kept their composure, battled their way out of their half without conceding, and were rewarded with two further tries from Yoxhall and Ciaran Greaves, who kicked six from eight conversions over the 80 minutes.

A Marple well-worked try was followed by one of their players being knocked temporarily unconscious after a collision of heads and he was attended to by paramedics on the touchline.

Stand-in coach for the day – injured skipper Sam Bensky – started to ring the changes and freshen things up, enabling Knutsford to re-seize the ascendancy.

Edmonds capitalised on Howard Dunkerley’s dancing feet to storm over for the first of his tries. Craig Robinson’s deft chip found the hands of Edmonds for his second.

Marple bagged their second try before Edmonds’ hat-trick score and Knutsford signed off with an excellent three-quarter link-up.