Wigton welcomed league leaders St Benedicts to Lowmoor Road and gave them a thorough examination of their Championship credentials before the promotion favourites showed a true competitive edge by digging deep in the closing minutes for the winning score.

Bennies, using a wind which was stronger on the field than it appeared in the stands, dominated the first twenty five minutes. They played to a clear pattern, with fly half Dan Rayson using his boot to good effect, keeping the game deep in Wigton's half. The set pieces were pretty even throughout with both sides having some success driving lineouts and winning their own ball at the scrums with neither side achieving dominance. Bennies had the impressive Scott Wood as their main lineout target. His strength is his athletic ability to claim ball thrown anywhere in his approximate vicinity, whereas Wigton had to be very accurate with their throws, something which was done for most of the games. Benedicts rarely moved the ball beyond Rayson until they were in the final third of the field. They allied this approach with a well organised defence, which proved difficult to break down.

Early on, Bennies made a number of attempts to drive lines whilst Wigton found it hard to clear their lines into the breeze. It was hard to make much ground kicking for touch, whilst kicks infield invited pressure straight back. Their best chance came when they attacked the short side from a lineout, with winger Karl Drake putting a foot in touch before getting over the line. On another occasion, Rayson was short with a penalty attempt.

Wigton's first promising attack came when inside centre Brad Bouch made an inside break with good support work from lock James Brough and No 8 Stuart Creighton. However St Benedicts came up with a couple of important turnovers to defuse the situation.

On about thirty minutes, Wigton, having soaked up a lot of pressure without looking too vulnerable, opened the scoring. With referee Cassells playing advantage to Wigton for a ruck offence, fly half David Hanabury tried a little chip over the top. Brough reclaimed the ball which was then quickly moved left as the defence tried to reorganise. Winger Stephen Harris made a determined strong run through several tacklers to give Wigton front foot ball in the 22. Hanabury showed a cool head to pull defenders to him and then release the ball to give winger Jonny Charters an outside run to score. He added the conversion to give Wigton a 7-0 lead.

Bennies stayed calm and tried to stick to their game plan, although their handling let them down at times. It was Wigton who scored next to go further ahead. They set up a strong driving maul from general play and gave Hanabury the ball going forward. His dummy allowed him to ghost through the first line of defence. He then passed to Harris who cut inside to support and run over from twenty yards. This took the lead out to 12-0.

Unfortunately, Wigton's difficulties in getting out of their 22 came back to haunt them as St Benedicts won a scrum in Wigton's 22. Smart handling stretched the defence and gave left winger Mark Caulfield the space to get outside the defence to score. Rayson was unable to convert, making the score 12-5 as the halftime whistle blew.

Very early in the second half, the vistors levelled the game up when a midfield penalty gave them a lineout in the Wigton 22. The forwards attacked infield and the ball was switched back to the short side where Caulfield stepped inside against the grain of the defence, making a strong run through several defenders to cross for his second try. Rayson's conversion made it 12-12.

Wigton next dominated the next twenty five minutes as it was the turn of St Benedicts to struggle getting out of their own half. A succession of defensive penalties in the 22 saw Bennies No 8 Steven Nelson shown the yellow card. However, Bennies defended against Wigton's efforts to make use of the extra man by driving lineouts. An attempt to set up a maul from a tapped penalty was mistimed, giving the defenders a penalty to clear instead. Shortly afterwards Wigton had an overlap but were unable to find the precision in handling to make use of it.

As the game entered the last quarter it was very much in the balance. Wigton got their noses in front when Charters kicked a penalty to make it 15-12. However, all day Wigton managed to punctuate some very good play with some schoolboy errors. From the restart several Wigton players waited for one another to claim the ball as it was allowed to bounce. This gave Benedicts a foothold in Wigton territory. A penalty for hands in the ruck meant Rayson was able to set up play in Wigton's 22.

There was a feeling that this was now the vital stage of the match. Wigton's tackling held firm against a series of attacks. Wigton were unable to take advantage of a couple of chances to clear. However, when Wigton were finally awarded a scrum in the St Benedicts half, it seemed as though they had weathered the storm and could play out the last five minutes in the opposition half.

Unfortunately a poor pass from the scrum saw the ball on the deck and Wigton were penalised as they tried to keep the ball. Bennies took a quick tap and swiftly moved onto the attack. Wigton seemed to have enough bodies to deal with the situation, but good interplay between Rayson and full back Mike Hawley kept the ball alive before Scott Wood was on hand to take the final offload plunge over for the try. This was followed by an unseemly fracas in the in goal area. The origins of this spat were not immediately apparent as players on both sides reach for their handbags in the gathering gloom. The referee then had an animated discussion with Bennies skipper Stuart Wilson and his centre Kyle Hiddleston. The upshot of this was a yellow card for Hiddleston and further debate with Wilson. The ref then had a similar discussion with Wigton skipper Hanabury and flanker Andrew Brown. The gist of this seemed to be a telling off for Brown.

When things settled down, Rayson converted for a 15-18 scoreline. There was time for Wigton to have a couple more pieces of possession in midfield but they were unable to conjure up a score against the well marshalled defence.

In the final analysis, whoever won the game would feel they deserved it whilst the losers would feel they had played well for little reward. Wigton's higher error rate was probably telling in the end. Bennies will feel they have dodged a potential banana skin and Wigton will be eagerly awaiting the visit of Aspatria for their next home game.

Sponsor Richard Benson (BROOKSIDE GARAGE) and his guests awarded the M O M to the evergreen Dan Reed who stepped up to scrum half role this week.